L'Enfant Sauvage
by RocketKat123
Summary: The ghost gave her a small smile. "Hello, Valerie Gray. Don't worry. I'm only here to talk," he said calmly, with the usual eerie echoing voice of a ghost, though the small lisp on some of his words did take her by surprise. "My name is Clockwork, by the way."
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Forgiveness Is Weakness

..

_He is finally dead_

_Come celebrate this day_

_It was slow and full of pain_

_Good riddance_

..

Only two and a half weeks had passed since Dan Phantom destroyed the shield and nearly laid waist to the rest of Amity Park.

Valerie sat by her father's hospital bed, eyes drooping with exhaustion. A punctured lung, crushed pelvis, compound fracture to the right femur, and a severe skull fracture made up the list of her father's injuries. It was surprising he wasn't in worse shape seeing as the old Fenton Works building nearly crushed him when Dan Phantom brought it down on top of them. It was surprising still that he was even alive. Valerie, on the other hand, got off light. She only had a few nasty scrapes and bruises.

She knew how important she was to keeping the city safe, but sometimes she desperately wished she was the one crushed under rubble, not her dad, or the number of people that couldn't get into the shelters in time. If she could just trade places...

But that line of thought was dangerous.

This was the second time Dan had put her father in the hospital with critical injury, but hopefully it would be the last. No one had seen Dan Phantom in those two weeks since the shield came down. There hadn't been a ping on her radar for Phantom—or any ghost for that matter. Everyone had their fingers crossed and held their breath.

"It's gonna be okay, Dad," Valerie murmured, sleepily. "I think we finally got him this time."

Her eyes had just drooped close when a voice said, "Colonel Gray?"

Valerie blinked and looked up at a stern looking nurse. "What do you want?" she said, a bit sharper than absolutely necessary.

"Visiting hours are almost over. You only have about thirty more minutes," the nurse said.

Valerie rubbed a hand over her face in an attempt to wake herself up more. "I thought the policy was 24/7 access for family members. Did that change or something?" She muttered, still slightly groggy.

"It's still 24/7 access for family in most units, just not the ICU anymore. With the hospital nearly at capacity, we don't want to over tax the staff with having to accommodate both the patients and the family," the nurse said matter-of-factly.

Valerie wondered if the nurse had ever lost someone close to her or had to watch them waste away in a hospital bed. Valerie would think she'd be a bit more sympathetic if she had. Or maybe she was sympathetic and Valerie was just reading her wrong. She could probably see bags under the nurse's eyes and tired lines in her shoulders if she looked, but Valerie didn't look because she was too damn tired herself.

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," Valerie said rubbing a hand over her face again.

As the nurse's footsteps faded down the hall, Valerie, glanced at the clock on over the doorframe. It read 9 pm. She sighed and leaned back in the surprisingly comfortable armchair. Fuck it. The nurse said she had thirty minutes, and she had a sift patrolling around the city not too long after visiting hours ended. Valerie needed a nap and she was sure the nurse would be a good makeshift alarm clock when she came in to throw her out.

As she drifted into sleep, she could just hear the quiet chatter of the hospital staff between themselves, and hushed sobbing from a couple rooms over on the periphery of her consciousness.

And suddenly it stopped. There was a sudden chill in the air and a kind of wrongness that stuck out in the presence of the supernatural. Valerie's eyes shot open.

She saw a blue ghost dressed in a purple cloak and a doublet. It was immediately apparent that he had some sort of affinity for clocks seeing he had the pendulum of a grandfather clock literally in his chest, several wristwatches adorning his wrists, and a staff with a clock on its top. He also had what was either a scar or a tattoo in the shape of a lightening bolt zigzagging over one of his pupilless red eyes. There was a primal part of her that knew this ghost was immensely powerful and old. Her hand subconsciously inched toward the gun in her holster even though her conscious mind knew that she could never hope to win against this ghost.

The ghost gave her a small polite smile, as if they were just strangers on the street that accidentally made eye contact, and not a ghost hunter and some eldritch creature. "Hello, Valerie Gray. Don't worry. I'm only here to talk," he said calmly, with the eerie echoing voice of all ghosts, though the small lisp on some of his words did take her by surprise. "My name is Clockwork, by the way."

Of course it had to be something like that, Valerie thought. She almost laughed at the name. Almost.

Instead, she glanced over at her father. She noticed he was still, not even breathing, and the screen of the heart monitor was stuck in between beats. "What did you do?" she asked, sounding a little more worried than she would like.

"I merely stopped time so we could talk. The only reason you're not frozen as well is because of the time medallion around your neck," the ghost said.

Valerie, for the first time, realized she had a weight around her neck. She looked down and saw a gear shaped pendant with the letters CW in the middle fastened around her neck with a thick ribbon made from a heavy kind of material.

She looked back up a Clockwork, her hand still discreetly going for her weapon, and said, "So, what do you want? Or did you interrupt my nap just for the hell of it?"

"Why don't we first address the fact that your hand is still going for the blaster on your belt, despite the futility of shooting me," the ghost deadpanned.

Valerie froze for a beat, then she shot up from her chair, aiming the blaster at the ghost. "Oh, yeah?" she shouted and pressed the trigger.

The green plasma bolt that came out of the muzzle froze in mid air. With a small, almost regretful smile Clockwork waved it away with a hand, making it completely disappear, as if it simply ceased to exist.

Valerie realized after a moment that her mouth was slightly agape and closed it with a snap. After a small pause, she let out a huff with apparent annoyance and shoved her gun back into its holster then crossed her arms over her chest. She just hopped that Clockwork didn't notice the slight tremble in her movements.

She asked in hardly less than a snarl, "What the fuck do you want?"

Clockwork gave her another small smile and said, "I'm sure you've noticed the lack of your enemy, Dan Phantom."

"Yeah, if only all ghosts would disappear like him," Valerie said pointedly.

"Unfortunately, that isn't the case. All the ghost activities, around here especially, has damaged the barrier between our worlds quite a bit," the ghost explained. "Although I'm sure that's not quite what you meant."

"No, not really, but thanks for the info," Valerie bit out sarcastically.

"I, in part, am responsible for his disappearance. I brought his younger form here to stop him, and to stop young Danny from becoming him."

She frowned. "Let me guess, you failed on the last part."

"No, not necessarily."

"Then why am I still here?" she asked, finding herself a little too comfortable with the idea of simply ceasing to exist.

"Sometimes the timeline branches off, creating tributaries of alternate outcomes. But I'm not here to discuss quantum theory with you. I feel that my domain would be a better place to discuss this," he said as a portal opened up. It hovered about a foot off the floor, green energy swirling slowly within its perimeter.

Valerie glanced from the portal to the ghost watching her with a deadpan expression. She cocked an eyebrow and said, "You seriously think I'm just going to go with you…into your...lair? What kind of idiot do you think I am?"

"I don't think you're an idiot," Clockwork said in a frustratingly calm voice. "Maybe a little naive, but then again you are hardly more than an infant, and you always were a bit brash."

A spark of rage flared in her chest. Valerie narrowed eyes narrowed. "Naive? Do you have any idea what I've been through!?" she spat.

"Yes, all too well," Clockwork said with such earnestness that it made Valerie pause. "But that is neither here not there. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead, and I wouldn't have asked you nicely to come with me. You honestly amuse me with your naive notion that you have any real power against me in this situation."

Valerie averted her eyes and tried to pretend she hadn't just broken out in a cold sweat

"Now," he gestured towards the portal, "I believe you would like to hear what I have to say, seeing as it concerns your 'greatest enemy.' I have him in my custody, and I'm willing to give you a voice in his fate. After all he's put you through, it's the least you deserve."

Valerie glanced at the portal then looked back to the ghost. "And why do you care?"

"I care because I know what you and he both have gone through. I've always cared, even when you cried out asking 'why' as Phantom ravaged your town. I'll say it again, Valerie, I've always cared, even as I've had to watch the most horrific things people have done to each other all throughout history."

"Then why didn't you do anything?" Valerie demanded.

"Trust me when I say it's complicated," the ghost said with a weary look. His features suddenly morphed, wrinkles forming and his frame becoming hunched to simulate the appearance of an old man. "But as I can see you are still not completely convinced that I have no nefarious intentions, you have my word that you will not be harmed and you will be free to leave whenever you please."

Valerie scoffed. "Just how much does your word really mean, ghost?"

"I would say the word of the Master of Time himself means quite a bit," Clockwork said intensely.

Valerie pursed her lips and looked to the portal again. She cursed under her breath. "Fine." Without another word, she stepped through the portal

She was dazed for just a second by the atmospheric shift. She looked around the large cathedral like room that had a multitude of clocks and strange screens lining the walls. Despite the light produced by the glowing screens and the light of the Ghost Zone filtering through the windows, the room was still dimly lit and had a cave like feel to it. She glanced up and saw enormous gears as if she was at the base of a clock tower.

"Wow, you _really_ like clocks don't you," she said dryly.

"You could say it's sort of my theme," he said as he came through the portal behind her, now taking the form of a small child.

"You could have fooled me."

"Anyway," Clockwork said directing her attention to a pedestal holding an old dented and beaten up Fenton Thermos, "this is currently Dan's form of prison."

She directed a wide eyed look at the thermos. "You're saying he's in there…right now?"

"Yes," Clockwork answered shortly.

"They why don't you just destroy him?!" Valerie said. "You can do that, can't you, _Master of Time_?" she said mockingly.

"I could, but I would rather not—well, truly it's not a matter of preference, but of principle. I could snuff out anyone's life, erase them entirely from history, if I wanted to, but I couldn't predict how that would affect the timeline. I see an infinite amount of possibilities, but I don't know which will come true."

"Don't you think you could make an exception for him?" Valerie said.

"No, I've never made an exception. Not for Pariah Dark millennia ago, not for him," Clockwork said with a nod towards the thermos. "I've had worse than you pester me to make an exception. I've found ways around it just as I will now."

"Then let me kill him," Valerie said, putting her hand on the gun in her holster.

The ghost looked disappointed. "If that is still what you want afterwards, then I will permit you to destroy him."

"After what?" Valerie asked, annoyed that the ghost was being intentionally vague.

"Before we decide his fate, I need to talk to you about your future," Clockwork turned from her and glided towards a swirling monitor, "and his past."

With that the screen changed. Valerie's brow furrowed in confusion when Danny Fenton and his two friends, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley were displayed upon it.

"What does this have to do with—" Valerie was quickly silenced by a prompt 'shh' from Clockwork. He gestured to the screen with his staff, and with a sour expression she turned her attention back to it.

On the screen Danny was struggling to pull on a black and white jumpsuit. He turned and gave his friends a shaky thumbs up and began to walk into a machine that could only be described as a hole in the wall. Valerie was suddenly hit with an overwhelming sense of dread, and she couldn't understand the reason for the feeling.

There was a moment of Danny just walking around in the device then he turned back and yelled out the opening of the machine to his friends, "Alright, I'm coming out now. I hope you already have all the pictures you want, Sam."

"Yeah, I'm good," she yelled back absently, looking at her phone swiping through said photos.

Danny's foot suddenly caught on one of the wires as he came out of the machine, and he only just caught himself on the side of the machine. It was only one tiny slip but the fallout was near instantaneous. A green light consumed the screen. The hairs on the back of Valerie's neck raised as Danny's awful tortured screams rang out through the time ghost's lair.

Her breathing hitched. Faces stretched in agony, forever burned into her memory by the one and only Dan Phantom, entered her vision. She had to turn away from Clockwork, who respectfully kept his eyes on the screen, so he couldn't see the shadows of the horrors she'd seen replay across her face.

Finally, Danny's agonized screaming stopped, and Valerie could breathe again. She turned back to the screen and gasped at what she saw. Danny Phantom crawled out of the machine, reaching desperately for Danny Fenton's horrified friends. He looked so pathetic and pained in that moment that even Valerie felt unsettled seeing him drag himself across the floor. Just before he reached Sam and Tucker who were frozen to the spot, his radioactive green eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell limp. Pail blue rings suddenly appeared around Phantom and transformed him, changing white hair to black, and a black and white jumpsuit into tattered blue jeans and a red and white t-shirt.

Clockwork, mercifully, paused the events unfolding on the screen.

Valerie took a deep breath and ran a hand through her short cropped hair. "After he went missing I knew, deep down, I just didn't want to admit it," she muttered to her self, drawing her hand down from her hair and running down her face.

She raised her eyes to Clockwork with a glare. "Why did you bring me here to show me this? Just to torture me?"

"I'm showing you this for perspective," he said in a completely deadpan voice,

"Perspective?" Valerie practically spat.

"Yes, a little perspective could have gone a long way for many people, saving countless lives and stopping virtually any war before it even started, but perspective is so rarely used."

"Alright, I get it," she muttered.

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"I showed you his beginning. Would you like to see his end?" He held up his hand and the screen began to swirl green again.

Valerie felt her heart leap in her throat, knowing exactly what he was about to show her. "No!" she nearly shouted. Clockwork raised an eyebrow without emotion. Valerie took a breath. "I don't need to see him like that. I get it. It was all over the news when his family died."

Clockwork leisurely lowered his hand and Valerie had to stop herself from breathing a sigh of relief when the screen didn't change.

"He lost everyone he loved all in one fail swoop—except for you. He thought about going to you, but he didn't think he could take the rejection. He preferred to keep you in his mind as his last friend, so instead he went to his enemy."

Valerie frowned. "Danny disappeared after the accident. No one knew what happened to him. Most people thought he just ran away. What are you talking about?"

"Vlad Masters," Clockwork said cryptically.

Valerie's eyes widened. "Vlad Masters?" she repeated softly. "What does he have to do with anything?" she asked, even though she already had a terrible suspicion.

"You see, Vlad was a halfa, as well, a human ghost hybrid also created during a lab accident involving Danny's parents, long before Danny himself was transformed, except Vlad was never a good person, not like Danny. He wasn't evil per se before he became a halfa, but ectoplasm is know for clinging to emotions, especially negative ones."

Valerie drew in a deep breath. "He used me." She remembered receiving the ghost weaponry by some anonymous benefactor and didn't even question it in the slightest. Then she met the man right before Pariah Dark attacked. Looking back on the encounter now, it was so obvious he was just a slimy businessman. "How could I be so stupid?"

Clockwork tutted and he shifted into his older form. "You let your anger control you. You refused to see reason, and you punished Danny for it. Perhaps he was right not to go to you."

"No! No, you can't say that! I wouldn't... I could have been there for him!"

"And you could have listened to him in the first place, believed him when he told you your ruin was not his fault."

"But he was a ghost!"

Clockwork raised a scraggly eyebrow, an amused smile playing at his lips. "So you think prejudice is an excuse?"

She let the tension out of her jaw and forced her hands to unclench. "What are you playing at? Am I on trial, too?" she said, her tone cold but even.

He snorted softly and changed back to his toddler form. "No, I'm just trying to make you understand that your unchecked anger and hate are what drove him away."

"Are you trying to say that I'm to blame for this?" she spat.

"In a way, we're all to blame, but tell me, Valerie Gray, would you have accepted Danny as Phantom if he had come to you? Don't lie."

She wanted to say 'of course' but as she opened her mouth to utter the words, all that came out was a puff of air. She swallowed hard and dropped her gaze. "I...maybe not immediately, but..." But what? It didn't matter did it? If she had eventually accepted him or not at all, it would be a betrayal either way. She let out a long breath as a claw of self hatred dug into her chest. She was so stupid then, just a bratty little girl that needed someone to blame for her misfortune.

She shook her head. "Why didn't he kill me?" Valerie whispered to herself.

She blinked, surprised at her own words.

"_Why didn't he kill me?"_ she repeated in her mind. What exactly was she trying to say? Was she finally admitting out loud that Phantom pulled his punches, because he definitely did, even in recent fights. Or was she verbally proclaiming her own feelings of guilt and self hate? Or a little bit of both?

Clockwork chuckled hollowly, putting a stop to her spiraling train of thought. "He still, in his warped mind, sees you as his only friend left. If pressed upon it, I honestly don't think he could kill you."

"What a nice sentiment," Valerie said bitterly.

"Isn't it? It shows that he can feel something besides hate," Clockwork said dryly. He let out another hollow chuckle. "But unfortunately that isn't enough. Even when faced with his childhood friends from the past, all he could feel was hate. He twisted their memory in his mind so he could...bare their loss."

Valerie raised a hand to her forehead and began to massage a spot over her eyebrow where a headache was brewing. "Okay, okay, I see now. He's fucked up. I fucked up. We all made a huge mess of everything. But that could never excuse him for what he did!"

"Of course not. Remember, Valerie, I'm only trying to inform your decision," Clockwork said in his usual patient way. "And besides, I feel that you have a right to know these things."

"I don't think my decision will change," she said crossing her arms. "What other options could there be anyway? It's either staying in the thermos forever, or I destroy him, right?"

"We'll get to that in time," he said. Valerie frowned at the pun.

Clockwork paused and glanced at the monitor. "Would you like to know how Danny came to be as he is now?" he said looking back to her solemnly. "I won't show you it. I'm only asking if you're curious."

Valerie's stomach did a flip and she swallowed. "There's still more to this horror show?"

"I'm afraid so," Clockwork said nodding grimly.

She drew in a long breath. She already knew what her answer was. It would eat her up not knowing, now that the time ghost had hinted at more. And Dan wouldn't exactly be forthcoming—especially if Valerie got her way.

"Alright, just tell me."

Clockwork nodded again giving her a look Valerie would almost say was pity.

"After going to Vlad, Danny requested to have his ghost half ripped out. Immediately thereafter, Phantom ripped out Vlad's ghost half, and Phantom forced them to fuse. Vlad Masters was the only survivor of the incident, and he barely survived at that.

A hot wave washed over Valerie, and her chest felt tight. She hadn't realized until then that she had held out some small hope that a part of Danny was still alive. It wouldn't have been better—in fact, it would be worse if he was still a halfa since she'd also have to kill a human. It was illogical, unless she also hoped that she _wouldn't_ have to kill him.

"He killed Danny, didn't he?" she said quietly.

Clockwork nodded again.

"How did...? No, no, I don't—I don't wanna know. Thank you for not showing me that."

"I know this means nothing, but I am so very sorry for everything that happened."

Valerie drew in a deep breath and nodded. She couldn't think of anything to say other than, "Yeah, me to." Her voice was slightly hoarse.

Valerie wanted to ask 'why'. Just why to any of it. Why did Danny decide that he needed to have his ghost half cut out? Why the hell did Vlad agree to it? But she quickly decided it didn't matter in that moment. None of the questions really mattered. Because Danny was dead, and that was the largest thing that loomed in Valerie's mind, and overshadowed anything else that tried to worm its way in.

She had known deep down that Danny was dead after he disappeared just as she had known there was a connection between him and Phantom when the ghost also disappeared. She was so good at hiding things from herself. She just put things at the back of her mind to deal with later and then never did. Hell, she wasn't even sure she had fully dealt with her mother's death nearly thirteen fucking years ago. She just charged ahead, covering all her issues with snide remarks and cold anger.

Clockwork gave her several moments to herself until he saw she was simply falling further and further into a pit. He cleared his throat.

Valerie looked up at him blinking several times to try to clear her eyes.

"I'm afraid we're not done quite yet. I need to show you one more thing," he said.

Valerie groaned and rubbed her face. "More past bullshit?"

"No, actually. I'm going to show you some future bullshit to even things out." Valerie almost laughed at his deadpan delivery of the line.

He waved at the screen and it began to change again. "Now watch."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Only Pain

..

_Just wanted to be good_

_Just wanted to be gold_

_Just wanted to be god_

_Just wanted to be_

_Only pain, all in vain_

..

The street lamps bathed the world in a dirty yellow light. The sun was completely down, and Danny knew it was about ten o'clock by how high the moon was in the sky. He stood on the sidewalk and stared up at Elmerton Apartments. Most of the windows in the apartments were dark, except for Valerie's.

He shouldn't be there. He knew that. He shouldn't be standing outside of Valerie's apartment building like a fucking creep, and he sure as hell shouldn't be thinking about going up there to talk to her. He'd been flying through the ghost zone for who knows how long, screaming and crying, and begging for his friends and family to answer back. He could hardly string a coherent thought together. How could he possibly explain to Valerie what he was in this state? How could he _ever_ explain to her in a way that she wouldn't immediately try to kill him afterwards?

She hated him.

But he couldn't be alone. He couldn't...

He was rooted to the spot on the sidewalk.

Suddenly, she was standing there, silhouetted in the window. She was closing the curtains and hadn't seen him yet. Danny was frozen, his heart beating against his ribs.

She paused halfway through the action. Danny, sure that she had spotted him, bolted. He half expected her—wanted her to chase after him, but she never did.

...

Danny hiked up the bag on his shoulders and rang the doorbell. He waited a minute then rang it again. When still no one answered the door, Danny sat down on the porch, leaning his back against a stone column. He quietly sat there for several minutes, wondering if Vlad was even home, and if he wasn't, when would he return? Loneliness and grief started to creep up on him again (what if Vlad wouldn't even take him in?) when the door to the manner suddenly swung open.

Vlad stood in the doorway looking like he had quickly put himself together. His eyes were slightly red, and his hair was messily put back.

His eyes widened when they landed on Danny, who sat frozen on the ground. "Daniel," he said, "I didn't think you... Would you like to come in?"

After a small pause, Danny replied with a quiet "yeah" and stood up.

"Have you had anything to eat?" Vlad asked.

Danny shook his head wordlessly.

Vlad ushered him inside and led him to the kitchen. Vlad started to make something for him, but Danny quickly found some leftovers in the fridge and elected to heat it up in the microwave—much to Vlad's distaste.

He ate it slowly while Vlad sat across the table and watched with curiosity and concern. He wasn't really hungry. He had spent most of the last month and a half in his ghost from, and he didn't need to eat as Danny _Phantom._

Vlad spoke suddenly making Danny jump. "You were gone for weeks, Daniel," he said, shattering the heavy silence that had settled over them. "Where were you?"

Danny didn't answer at first. He wanted to ignore Vlad and continue eating. He knew he wouldn't be able to finish his food if he told Vlad. He wasn't really hungry, but it was good food. However, it started to taste like sand in his mouth as he inevitably began thinking back on the desperate month in the ghost zone. Finally, he put his fork down with a clang against the ceramic plate.

"I was searching."

"For what?"

"For...them..." he said in little more than a whisper.

Tears sprang to his eyes as the wound suddenly tore wide opened again. "I searched and searched the ghost zone, but I never found any trace!" He looked up at Vlad with an agonized expression. "I expected at least Tucker, and Sam! Didn't they care enough to stay?! Did they care at all about me?!"

Tears of anger and regret raced down his face unchecked. He didn't care if Vlad saw him like this. He didn't care about anything at all.

He knew deep down that it was selfish to wish his friends and family had become ghosts, but they left him so suddenly and so alone. And the worst part was that it was his fault.

"I don't...understand..."

A sob bubbled out of his throat, followed by another, and his face crumpled. He hid behind his hands and cried.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was cold and heavy, a parody of comfort.

"It'll be alright, Danny," Vlad hushed.

...

At first Dan had rebelled against his prison. It wasn't like he was physically beating against the insides of the thermos, it was more like a war of wills. He thought he had it once during the beginning, but the thermos shoved him back down into subdued semiconscious. But he had bounded back and fought at it again. With each successive attempt, he could feel it's hold weakening, and he came back a little stronger each time.

But then suddenly...

There was light.

After floating in oblivion for so long, Dan saw light—blinding, searing light. His form solidified, bringing back touch, taste, and smell, as well as a sense of disorientation. His body had to remember where everything went and that, yes, this was how it was supposed to be, not some nebulous bundle of energy in a fucking thermos.

The moment of panic and extreme disorientation passed and his vision straightened. He realized he was on his hands and knees, and that there was a slight pressure around his head. He raised a hand to feel a band of cool metal like a crown or a circlet. Well, that was weird, but it could await further investigation as soon as he got off the floor.

As soon as he tried to stand, an all too familiar female voice said, "Stay down."

Unprepared for the sudden compulsion, he instantly fell back on his knees. He tried again to stand, trying to force his muscles to work, but the more he fought against the unseen force keeping him down, the more a headache began to build, until sudden agony seized his core. It was absolute and pure in the most brutal sense. The accident in the portal was excruciating. It had felt like burning from the inside out, but at least he had a way to describe it. This didn't feel like anything but pain. It didn't burn or wrench his insides, it just fucking hurt.

Finally, the agony released him, and he felt breathless despite not needing air.

"Wow, so that's what it does," Valerie said, half amused and half in genuine surprise. "I think an eardrum burst with all your screaming, by the way."

Had he screamed? He couldn't even hear himself in that moment. Everything outside of the pain was impossible to sense.

He wanted to say something, a snarky reply, a curse at her, anything, but his vocal cords seized up, still traumatized from a moment ago.

"Valerie, I didn't give you this power to torture him," another all too familiar voice said.

Dan's jaw set and his lips pulled away in a snarl. Clockwork, of course, of course it would be him.

"I didn't do anything," she denied. "I think it's because he tried to get up."

"Why don't we let him up? We don't benefit from him being prostrate on the ground."

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure I benefit from it."

"Oh, I bet you do," Dan said, finally finding his voice. He raised his head and looked up at a scowling Valerie standing right in front of him.

She had her arms crossed over her chest and stood resolute in her usual red battle suit, but around her right ring finger was a thin silver band with a tiny red stone in the center.

"Does seeing me on my hands and knees do it for ya, Val?" he taunted with a malicious leer. Her scowl only deepened.

"Don't call me 'Val'," she spat. "And get the fuck up."

Without even a conscious thought, he was suddenly on his feet. He stared at her, annoyed and more than a little anxious. "How are you able to do that?" he demanded.

"The circlet and the ring are connected," Clockwork jumped in to explain. "The wearer of the ring can control any ghost wearing the circlet. It was made to control a spirit even stronger than you centuries ago. Think of it as the opposite of the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage."

Dan glared at the time ghost, who was, by the way, now in his child form, only adding to the ridiculousness of the situation. "What's all this for?" he asked.

"I've called her here to discuss your...parole—for a lack of a better word. You're going to help rebuild the world you destroyed."

"Why don't you just destroy me? Wouldn't that be easer?" Dan growled. He didn't particularly like the idea of oblivion by Clokwork's hand, but it was either that, being stuck in the thermos for the rest of eternity, or being forced to spend time surrounded by people he had tried to kill, with Valerie keeping him on a short leash.

"That is not my way. And Valerie, though she disputed it at first, has come to respect my principles. We've come to agree that it would be better to use you rather than simply kill you."

"I just realized, there is one small snag in your plan," Valerie said. "Nobody is going to allow that maniac anywhere near the city even if I say it's safe."

"Most ghosts can take on a more human appearance, usually resembling what they looked like in life, including our ward," Clockwork said, nodding to Dan.

Dan flicked an uneasy glance at Clockwork.

"He already told me," Valerie said, quickly stepping in.

Dan's attention immediately shot to her. She wouldn't meet his eyes, but she wore a somewhat vulnerable expression.

A wry smile pulled at his mouth and he shook his head. He let out a bitter laugh as he said, "Of course. That's why you agreed to any of this, isn't it? It all makes sense now!" he declared theatrically. He let out a harsh string of chuckles. "I'm touched, actually—really and truly," he said as he put his hand over where his heart once beat.

"Shut up!" she spat. "I know you're not Danny. He's dead. I know you killed him."

He wanted to say she was wrong. He wanted to tell her that he still remembered everything from Danny's life, to tell her he still had all his hopes and dreams, remind her that he was her _precious_ Danny's tainted soul manifest, but when he opened his mouth to make a retort, no sound came out—not even a rasp of air over his vocal chords.

Valerie's face lit up with a sly look. She tilted her head and sent him a mock expression of pity. "Aww, don't have a reply? Cat got your tongue?"

He sent her a mutinous look. Oh, he had a reply, and a few choice words he'd like to share, if only he could actually say them.

She took another step closer just into his circle of reach. Bad move, he thought and reached out to grab her, or hit her, or anything—any kind of retaliation to prove that he wasn't totally powerless. But as he raised his arms to attack her, his muscles suddenly froze. Valerie's smirk only widened. He pushed on the force, but as a sharp thunderclap of pain shot through his temples he wisely chose to stop.

"You can't do anything against the wearer of the ring, isn't that what you told me, Clockwork?" Valerie said snidely.

"Yes, I believe it is."

For the first time in a very long time, panic clutched Dan's core. He tried to speak again. A word, just one word to prove he still had some power. He pushed past the pain encircling his head, ignoring its warning, until just as before the all consuming, indescribable pain gripped him.

When it finally released him he was still standing somehow, though his legs felt too weak to support him. Maybe her command from before still applied. Could he not even scream at the pain? He couldn't know.

He glanced at Valerie. She wouldn't look at him, her eyebrows pinched. Well, apparently she wasn't enjoying this as much as she pretended to.

"Alright, I think that's enough," Clockwork said. "Please give Daniel his tongue back."

"Fine," she said almost as some sort of halfhearted protest. "You can talk again."

"Bitch," he said the second he felt the compulsion was gone. He still sounded slightly breathless.

She raised an eyebrow. "Look who's talking. The only bitch I see is you."

A reluctant smirk lifted the corners of his lips. "I've missed this. Our little insult matches are always too much fun," he said dryly.

She snorted and gave him an unimpressed look. "Sure. Can you just do your shape shifting thing already?"

Dan didn't feel compelled to do it, so it must have registered as a request rather than a demand. Interesting. He'd file that away for later use.

"Be careful how you word a request or a demand, Valerie," Clockwork said as if reading Dan's mind. "Don't mix up one for the other."

"Thanks, Clockwork," Valerie said brightly. She sent Dan a smug look.

Dan shot the time ghost a glare, but transformed without further prompting.

It wasn't like when he was still a halfa, twin rings sweeping over his body. For some reason that didn't translate over. Instead, a bright light encompassed his form completely. A moment later the light died, and he stood, blue skin now peachy with artificial life and white hair, black. His clothes were transformed into an ordinary looking pair of blue-jeans and a white t-shirt.

He held up his hands level with his shoulders in a halfhearted pose. "Ta-da," he said flatly.

Valerie's eyes widened a fraction and she looked over Dan with apparent interest.

"Why, Valerie, are you enjoying the view?" he said, giving her bedroom eyes.

"Fuck you," she snapped. A blush faintly peaked through her dark skin.

"Right here, right now?"

"Children, please," Clockwork interceded. He morphed into his elderly from, as if they had aged him years in a couple seconds.

Valerie raised a hand to her brow, massaging the spot furiously. "I just thought you might look like you're younger self—before everything happened, and you were still human."

His face split in a too wide grin. "Oh, I can do that too."

Light engulfed him, and suddenly he was his younger self. "Hey, Valerie, hows it going?" he said, perfectly imitating his squeaky adolescent voice.

Valerie looked like she had been shot. Her eyes were wide in absolute horror. Dan would have enjoyed seeing her so stricken if it wasn't for the fact that he would likely face repercussions for pushing her that far.

No, fuck it. He still enjoyed it. Consequences be damned.

Suddenly rage replaced shock. "Change back," she spat.

There was no room for negotiation, and he instantly changed back into his adult human form against his will.

Clockwork sighed loudly. "Ancients give me strength. I'm going to have to end this orientation here. Now please leave my lair," he said as a portal appeared.

"Where will we end up? Back at the hospital?" Valerie asked.

The ghost nodded. "Yes."

"Alright." She glanced at Dan with a smirk. "Lets go."

His legs started to move with their own volition. Dan tried to fight it, but quickly gave up when he felt the warning spike of pain in his head.

He shot Clockwork a venomous look over his shoulder. "So you're really letting this happen? You're going to pimp me out to my worst enemy?" he said, still forced to move forward.

"Stop," Valerie suddenly said.

She did an about-face on the ball of her heel and took a step towards Dan. "I'm not like you. I don't take some kind of sick satisfaction out of making people suffer. You're just gonna be there to pay off your debt. Got it?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around again, and marched forward towards the portal. She didn't prompt Dan to follow her, but he did so anyway with only a small moment of hesitation.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Bring Me Home

..

_I close my eyes and count to ten_

_The seconds turn to years and slowly_

_I've been recognizing everything_

_To an adolescent mind_

_It's so dark here_

..

One second Valerie was busy being bored out of her mind in Algebra I, the next fire was raining from the sky down on Casper High. No one had any warning. Even Valerie who had a ghost tracker around her wrist barely got a ping before the firestorm suddenly hit.

She rocketed up the stairs on her hover board to get to the second floor. She could have gotten out almost immediately, her third period Algebra class being held on the ground floor, but she had to make sure all the kids on the second floor got out.

As soon as she flew past the second flight, a burning beam fell and blocked the stairs. She cursed. Well, there was no turning back now. Even if she wanted to.

As she entered the second floor hall proper, she noticed a huge burning hole in the roof, and various scraps of burning debris laying on the linoleum floor, mostly insulation and splintered wood.

A few of the sprinklers that were still operational sprayed water over the vermilion flames futility. Nothing seemed to stop the creep of the odd colored fire, Valerie guessed because it was probably supernatural by nature.

She really didn't have time to question that right now, however. She was sure she heard voices in one of the rooms.

She moved to inspect the voices when suddenly she felt hands gripping her under her shoulders. She was pulled out through the roof, phased through the skeletal remains of it. The cold pins and needles momentarily stole her breath, but she quickly found it again to scream as she felt the hands retract from underneath her arms.

Then the hands caught her again, nearly snapping her neck with the sudden halt. A young male voice chuckled darkly just above her. Her eyes widened. She knew that voice.

Then he let go of her again and caught her again, playing with her almost like a cat with a hapless little bird. Finally, he dropped her about ten feet off the ground and didn't make a move to catch her again. She braced herself, readying to try to minimize the impact, but even knowing that it would be a bad landing, she wasn't quite ready for the sudden, blinding pain that tore through her ankle and up her shin.

She let out a short cry and sprawled on the ground. She curled up on her side, gritted her teeth, and gripped her ankle.

"Oh, no, Valerie! Did you hurt yourself?" said Phantom mockingly.

She lifted her head and almost gasped when she saw him. He still had the same black and white theme he always wore, but almost everything else about him was different. His once almost human like complexion had become a sickly blue-green color, departing completely from humanity, and his eyes, once emerald green were now red like hot coals. His hair was still the same color, snowy white, but it moved and flickered like fire.

He smiled at her with a malicious grin, showing off sharp canines. "Valerie, you look like you've seen a ghost," he said with a dangerous tone in his voice. At least he had the same bad jokes.

"You—What happened to you?" Valerie stuttered. "You did this... You actually..."

"I actually what? Did something bad for once?" he said mockingly. "You thought I was some evil ghost menace before, but you had no idea what that even meant. I really was trying to help then, but that's over—"

Her hand suddenly shot to her holster drawing a gun. Phantom just as quickly blasted it out of her hand. She yelped and drew her burned hand close to her. He still held up his hand, glowing with energy ready to fire at her. He could kill her right then and there, but she wouldn't cower on the ground. She glared, her eyes daring him to make a move even as her heart beat a manic rhythm.

There was a moment when she thought he really would kill her. He still held the red fire in his hand aimed at her, his face a mask of hate. He looked like he was warring internally with himself. Then suddenly his face split into an almost sheepish looking smile. He let out a quiet chuckle and let the red energy disperse.

Running a hand through his fiery hair, he said, "I got monologuing didn't I? How cliché. Anyway, I gotta get going. I have a town to destroy."

He shot into the sky and disappeared. It took a second for Valerie to believe he was actually gone before she let herself take a breath. Her muscles began to tremble with the drain of adrenaline from her system. The ache up her leg intensified.

She heard the screech of sirens, and she began to feel hopeful that they would reach the school in time. But then a second later, she heard the boom of an explosion and the siren going quiet.

Tears sprung to her eyes. "What can I do? What am I going to do?" she said to herself through gritted teeth.

No, screw that. No crying. No complaining—only doing.

She blinked the tears out of her eyes and reached up to wipe them away only to be reminded that, oh yeah, she was wearing a mask. She spat out a curse and ripped it off.

She took another breath, and, steeling herself, she stood up. She had to bite her lip to keep herself from yelling. It was broken. Maybe not bad broken, but something was definitely broken.

She heard the quiet rumble of jets behind her and found her hover board waiting for her. She glared at the thing as if it could be intimidated by her look. "Oh, so now you show up?" She grumbled, the strain of pain in her voice. It was supposed to sense when she fell off the board, but maybe the AI wasn't smart enough to figure out what to do if a ghost grabbed her and lifted her off it.

"There needs to be a program for that," she mumbled to herself.

...

They stepped through the portal, and just as Clockwork said, she was back in her father's hospital room, time resumed.

As she went to her father's bedside she watched Dan out of the corner of her eye. He disregarded her and walked to the window, now dark as the night outside.

She let the tension out of her shoulders and focused on her dad. He still slept peacefully. She envied him a little bit, especially now that she had to babysit a destructive ghost. She retucked the sheets around him just to have something to do with her hands.

"There you go, Dad," she murmured mostly to herself.

A moment of silence lapsed until Dan said, "I look like a fucking Sailor Moon character."

Valerie shot him a frown. But now that he mentioned it she could see it, especially with the small red stone in the center of it. Her frown softened a bit and she snorted. "Sure, you even have a magical girl transformation and everything."

She looked back down at her father ignoring the furious look Dan sent her.

"I'm not going be the one to explain why I'm wearing a fucking tiara, if someone asks," he ground out.

She rolled her eyes. "Nobody'll see it. Clockwork said they're only visible to the wearers and other ghosts."

Dan was quiet for a moment then snorted. "Convenient."

"I think you have bigger problems than people looking at you funny, anyway," she said darkly.

"Like what? You using me as a puppet? Yeah, I already know about that."

Her jaw locked. She looked up at him with a livid glare. "No. You did this—" she spat and made a pointed nod towards her comatose father "—to just about the only person I have left."

He glanced at her dad in the hospital bed. "If it's any consolation, I wasn't aiming for him," he said dryly.

Her tone was cold and clipped as she said, "If he dies, I will kill you, no matter what Clockwork wants."

Which Clockwork probably knew, so that either meant that her dad would make it, or he didn't really care if Dan lived or not.

"I think I might know of a way to at least keep him alive," Dan said.

She raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"When a ghost overshadows a person, they can keep the human alive even when the host is otherwise fatally wounded," Dan said neutrally.

Valerie's eyes widened. "I'm not going to let you possess my father!" she hissed.

Dan rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. It's not like I'm going to make your father jump out of bed and do a little jig—not like you would let me do that anyway." He said the afterthought under his breath a little begrudgingly, like he would do such a thing if he could. "I'll just make a doppelgänger and let it, I don't know, keep him together until he heals enough on his own, or something."

Valerie glanced down at her dad. She had read about some interesting tests the Fentons had done with ectoplasm on living cells that came to light after they were gone. The results were split about fifty-fifty. In some cases the ectoplasm would kill the cells, but other times they would encourage regeneration as radical as growing entire limbs back on lab mice. Valerie probably should have known then that Danny was Phantom, but regardless—

The Militia's research and development department tried to recreate the results which was fairly simple, but there was no way to reliably implement the data. The project was scrapped of course. But it was scientific proof of beneficial interactions with ectoplasm and living organisms. And Valerie had never heard of someone dying of a possession, or being "overshadowed," directly.

"Well, I'm waiting," Dan said impatiently.

"I'm thinking," she shot back.

If she was being realistic, she knew that her dad's chances of survival were slim. She heard the whispers around the hospital, and saw the pitying looks some of the doctors and nurses gave her. And if he did recover it might not be in anyway meaningful.

She sighed and turned back to Dan. "Are you sure this will work?"

He shrugged. "I'm reasonably sure. I've seen overshadowed people do things that would kill them otherwise. And when I was still a half ghost I know I should have died many times if I were still completely human." He suddenly adopted a curious look on his face. "I suppose that presents an interesting relationship between ectoplasm and life energy."

Valerie ignored him and asked, "Why would you want to help me in the first place?"

Dan gave her a flat look. "Well, I don't really fancy the idea of being reduced to a smoldering pile of goo."

She drew in a deep breath. "Alright, but you don't control him at all. You're just a backseat passenger, you got it? And if he wakes up, you tell me immediately."

He gave her a lopsided, hollow smile, and said snidely, "Of course, mistress."

A shadow pealed off him and flew towards her father. It settled over his prone form before disappearing. Her father didn't stir.

"There, it's done."

She watched her dad closely for a moment, hardly daring to breath. She didn't know what she expected, but somehow she couldn't accept that Dan would help her father unconditionally.

"What, do you expect him to sit up and yell 'boo'?"

She rounded on Dan with a glare. She was about to make a retort when the nurse from earlier walked in.

"I'm sorry, but I really do need you to—" she started to say but stopped when she saw Dan. "You're not supposed to be in here, sir. It's family members only. How did you even get in here?"

"Sorry, we'll be going now," Valerie said, before Dan could speak up. "Just let me say goodbye to my dad."

The nurse gave a curt nod before stepping back out of the room.

Valerie leaned down and placed a kiss on her father's forehead. "See you later, Dad," she said quietly before straightening.

She turned back to Dan. "Let's go."

Only a few paces out of the room, Dan said from beside her, "You know, it's kind of like you kissed me too."

She sent him a scowl. "You better watch it."

"Valerie!" a familiar voice suddenly said behind them. She cringed and turned around to see Kwan, white coat over his shoulders, walking down the hall towards her. "Were you just visiting your father?"

"Yeah, I was," she said tightly.

He gave her a sympathetic look. "I heard you were here, and I was coming down to talk with you. Sorry again about your dad, but he does seem to be doing a little better. And we're doing all we can to keep him comfortable."

She lowered her gaze and nodded. "Yeah, I know he's in good hands with you here." She glanced up and gave him a small halfhearted smile.

Kwan returned her smile but then he looked to her left at Dan, who watched the exchange with a guarded expression. "Uh, hello," Kwan said in his usual friendly manner. "I don't think we've met."

"I'm...an old friend of Valerie's," he supplied, when Valerie herself didn't answer immediately.

"Oh, really? You didn't go to our high school, did you? What's your name? I'm Dr. Kwan Lee, by the way." Kwan held out his hand amicably.

Dan hesitated a second before taking the proffered appendage. "It's...Dean, and I only went to Casper Hight for the first half of Freshman year. I don't blame you for not remembering me."

"Oh, your hand's really cold," Kwan commented as he took his hand back.

"Well, you know what they say, cold hands warm heart," Dan said.

Valerie scoffed loudly. Kwan shot her a confused glance before directing his attention back to Dan. He tilted his head and frowned with genuine curiosity. "So, Dean Huh? Did your family move out of town—I mean are you from out of town? Since, well, the dome came down and Phantom disappeared we've been getting relief efforts from outside."

"Yeah, I am. I moved when things started getting weird."

Kwan chuckled a little nervously. "Smart."

"Uh, anyway," Valerie said cutting in, "we should get going. I need to take...Dean to the compound and get him settled, then I have to go do a patrol."

Kwan gave a small worried frown. "Okay, take care of yourself though. Don't run yourself ragged, you know?"

She shook her head and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about me. I've suffered worse."

He still looked unsure, but he gave her a small nod. "Alright, see you."

"See you," Valerie replied and turned, Dan following.

"Dean? Really?" she hissed once they were out of earshot.

"It was on the spot," he protested. "Besides, if you mess up, it'll be easier to recover from. Not like you would've done any better, anyway."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"I told you a long time ago to not call me _Danny Phantom _anymore, and you just started calling me 'Dan'. Real original with that one, Valerie dear."

"That was mostly just to piss you off," Valerie said as they got to the elevators and she pressed the down button.

She leaned against the wall to wait for the elevator and aimed a pointed look at Dan. "Also, I think it's sort of weird that you claim you're still...him, and yet you don't even want to be referred to by the same name."

He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "Maybe I just thought 'Danny' was too childish."

"Anyway," he said suddenly changing the subject, "did you and Kwan get back together?"

Valerie narrowed her eyes. "Not that it's any of your fucking business, but yes. We're not still together, though," she spat.

She unconsciously pressed against the wall further and hunched her shoulders. Her and Kwan's past relationship wasn't something she liked to think about, and of course Dan had to bring it up. They had gotten back together for a short while a year or so after the Shield went up. She regretted that like she regretted most things—not that she didn't like Kwan, but she had to break up with him all over again when Phantom and the rest of the ghosts took up all of her time. She couldn't give him the time he deserved, and it was very likely that she would die out on the front line protecting small fringe towns from Phantom.

"Why the hell do you want to know anyway?"

He shrugged. "He just seemed awfully friendly—really, I just wanna know how things have changed since I've been gone." He paused for a second as the elevator arrived and a woman stepped out.

"What's this compound, by the way? It sounds...imposing."

She rolled her eyes and stepped into the elevator, Dan following.

"It's just the Militia headquarters," Valerie said as she pressed the button for the first floor. "It's where we keep recruits while they're on duty. Some of the people that lost their homes are also staying there for now." She sent him a dark look. "But there's still plenty of room in the sleeping quarters. It'll be easy to find you a place to stay."

He pouted dramatically. "Aww, we're sleeping in separate rooms? I really thought you'd make me sleep on the ground beside your bed or something. I had my heart set on it, in fact."

She made a disgusted sound. "You're fucked up."

"So? What's knew?"

"Do you even sleep? You're a ghost."

"Sometimes—usually when I'm bored."

Valerie glared. "I thought you destroyed things when you're bored."

"That too, but it gets old after a while. You tear down a building, people scream," he shrugged nonchalantly, making Valerie's blood boil, "it's the same every time. And the only thing I really wanted to destroy was this stupid town."

"Tell that to the twenty mile ring of destruction outside of Amity," Valerie spat. "People had to evacuate all the way in Springfield."

He let out a mocking chuckle and turned to her with a dangerous look in his eyes and a too-wide grin showing sharp canines. "I didn't have to stop there." He said in a patronizing tone, as if explaining something to a toddler. "I've done the math. I could have destroyed everything. Nobody could have stopped me. In fact, the world probably would have torn itself apart trying to. Instead, they were happy to sacrifice this town and the ones around it keep me quarantined."

She glared with a look of cold hate. "What do you want?" she said frigidly. "A medal for not being as bad as you could have? For not destroying the _whole_ world?"

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, Valerie, don't be so melodramatic. I'm simply laying out the facts here."

She shook her head and turned away from him, looking up at the floor numbers just to look at something other than him. She still felt hot with anger, but she decided it would be best to simply cut off the conversation. If it went on any longer, she might actually kill him right then and there in the elevator.

...

As they got down to street level she hailed a cab.

"Don't you have a car?" Dan grumbled as the taxi pulled up to the sidewalk.

"Nope, never learned how to dive. Never had to. Mostly just used my hover board to get around," she said as she opened the cab door.

"Well, how about you call up your hover board, and I race you to the compound."

She glared up at him. "Get in the cab."

He gave her a dirty look before being forced to the other side of the car. He opened the door, got in, and slammed the door shut again with a huff.

Even as Valerie sent him a triumphant smirk, she felt a pinch of guilt. She didn't like treating him like a puppet, even if he deserved worse. It felt sick and wrong—like something he would do.

"Hey, would you mind not slamming my door, huh, wise guy?" the cab driver said in a comically thick Chicagoan accent, twisting around in his seat to shoot a glare at Dan.

His eyes then slid over to Valerie and widened. "Oh, my—you're Colonel Gray, the Red Huntress herself! Can I just say it is an honor to have you in my cab."

Valerie gave him a tight smile. "Yeah, thanks, uh, I just need you to drive us to the Militia compound."

"Sure, sure thing, Colonel. Name's Barry, by the way," he said, tapping his ID pinned to the dashboard.

He pulled away from the curb and started to drive.

"Wow, 'colonel', is that official?" Dan said wryly.

"No," she snapped quietly, "not now, but with the dome up... Well, the Militia was the most official thing we had, and being colonel along with it."

He hummed to himself in thought. "So if you're a colonel, is there a general?"

"My dad."

Dan raised an eyebrow. "What gave him that station?"

She shrugged. "He pretty much formed the Militia, helped design the Shield and most of my ghost weapons. He was the backbone of this city, not me—not really."

Dan looked like he wanted to say something, but thankfully kept his mouth shut.

...

They arrived at the compound and left the cabby with his fair, even though he tried to to tell Valerie that she didn't have to pay.

Dan was silent beside her on the sidewalk, looking up at the building. He seemed like he was thinking. Then he suddenly said, "This was where the school used to be."

"Yeah, it was. We thought it would be fitting to place our base of operations here."

"Why?" he asked, turning to her with narrowed eyes. "Just because I destroyed the school? I destroyed a lot of places. Why here specifically?"

"It was the first place you targeted," Valerie said solemnly. "And the students that died there were your first victims."

He held up a finger. "Wrong. Remember what I did in Masters' mansion?" Dan said almost cheerfully.

She gave him a venomous look. "I remember," she said coldly. "Now come on."

She walked to the door. Dan obediently followed. She swiped her keycard and entered.

"Hey, Val!" Paulina said from behind the front desk.

"Oh, god damnit," Valerie muttered under her breath.

Paulina wanted to help with the Militia, but Valerie wouldn't let her anywhere near combat. Working as a clerk in the offices at the compound was their compromise. The bad thing was, Valerie had forgotten that working the front desk Monday through Thursday was part of their deal (seeing as it was her job as a clerk)—and how much of of a flirt she was.

"Who's your friend?" Paulina asked fluttering her eyelashes at Dan.

"I'm Dean," Dan answered before Valerie could.

A sort of cheeky smile twisted Paulina's lips. "My name's Paulina. You're new here aren't you? 'Cause I _know_ I wouldn't have forgotten you."

"Uh, yeah," Valerie finally cut in. "He needs a room. What dorms are open?"

Paulina turned back to Dan with bedroom eyes and a coy smile. "You need a room, huh? You're welcome to share mine."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Paulina!" she hissed through gritted teeth. She glanced at Dan, who wore a somewhat panicked look. It made him look younger.

Paulina snickered. "I'm just kidding. Hall E is basically empty, take your pick."

"Maybe somewhere closer to me," Valerie said. Paulina got a light in her eyes, making Valerie instantly regret her suggestion.

"Oh, I see now."

"No, no, you don't see shit," Valerie said covering her heating face.

Paulina chuckled again. "Okay, sure, chica. Whatever you say. But in seriousness, room A-10 is open. It's right down the hall from you." Her eyebrows pinched a bit, as if she was already apologizing for bringing it up.

Valerie dropped her gaze. "I almost forgot about that."

"Something wrong with A-10?" Dan said.

Valerie shot him a cold look, not caring if Paulina saw. "The guys that had the room before, Albert, and Dmitri, both died in Phantom's attack."

"How'd they die?" Dan asked with an unreadable expression.

"Dimitri died when his vehicle flipped several times," she said with clipped tones. "Then Albert died due to a direct hit from Phantom. He lived for about an hour before dying from the burns.

Dan though for a second then turned back to Paulina. "Is there another room?"

"No, you know what? That's good enough. Don't worry about looking it up, Paulina," Valerie cut in. Dan shot her an annoyed look.

The Latina raised an eyebrow. "Uh, okay, if you're sure."

"Yep," Valerie said popping the 'p'.

Paulina shrugged and went to grab the key card to the room.

She looked at Dan from the corner of her eye. He steadily glared at her. She smirked.

"What's the problem, _Dean_? Suddenly have some crisis of conscience? If not, I don't see why this should bother you."

"I don't give a shit about your dead friends. I just hate that you're controlling every aspect of my existence," he growled.

She snorted. "How does it feel to finally have the shit end of the stick?"

"My life _was_ the shit end of the stick," he spat.

"I guess it's only right that you're death is too then." Valerie knew that was too mean, but for all the nasty barbs Dan spat at her, it felt good to jab back.

His eyes flared scarlet, but before he could do or say anything more, Paulina came back.

"Alright, here you go," she said holding out the card.

She gave Valerie a weird look as she took it. Valerie glanced at Dan and nodded towards the hall.

Dan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, looking for all the world like he was trying not to kill someone. But then he composed himself again and followed her.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Reflections

_.._

_Defeated, I concede and_

_Move closer_

_I may find comfort here_

_I may find peace within the emptiness, how pitiful_

_.._

Valerie glared at herself in the mirror. Her sixteen year old face was contorted in frustration and pain, one of her eyes puffy and bruised. Her hair billowed over her shoulders, tangled and blown out. She hadn't even ran a brush through it today.

In her mind she could hear the screams of people running away in panic. Because she wasn't there to stop Phantom. Because she got sloppy and got herself hurt. Stupid.

She tore her rotator cuff so bad they had to do surgery on it. She'd spend weeks laid up, taking shots to minimize the damage and doing physical therapy. She had weeks, but the people outside the Shield didn't. She couldn't do anything, or she'd risk doing permanent damage to her shoulder. Her life was spinning out of control.

Her glare only deepened, her reflection responding in kind.

Her shoulder started to throb just from thinking about it. It hurt so bad even with the pain medication that the doctors proscribed her. Not only did it not seem to work but it made her feel strange, like she wasn't really there, like she was just floating a foot above her body. It was hard to think.

A lock of her hair fell into her face and she angrily pushed it away with her hand. She made a startled noise as she accidentally brushed tender skin around her eye.

As the shock and pain subsided, anger welled up inside her, the unfortunate victim being her hair. Regardless of its inability of blame, she'd make it pay. She pulled out a pair of scissors from the medicine cabinet and hacked off the first piece, the original offender, then she cut off another and another.

When her rage finally subsided, she looked at herself in the mirror again. With curly hair you could usually hide uneven hair ends, but what she did was just an absolute hack job. She looked like a half shorn sheep, crossed with a troll doll. She let out a laugh. What the hell was she? Some chick from a teen romance novel that just got dumped? No, she just got irrationally angry at her hair, which while still irrational, was less so than cutting her hair because of a boy.

Then again, Phantom, though a ghost, was definitely still a boy. And he indirectly caused her to attack her hair. Well, it was a reach, but the thought still coaxed another laugh out of her.

She caught another glance at herself and continued laughing, eventually becoming consumed in giggles. Her laughter morphed into sobs somewhere along the way, and she covered her face with her hands, careless of her black eye.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the bathroom door. "Valerie, are you alright, sweetheart?" her dad asked.

She froze. She tried to say something, but her vocal cords were paralyzed as well.

There was a pause, and then he said, "I'm coming in."

She jumped as the notoriously squeaky door creeped open. Her dad stood in the doorway, left sleeve hanging loose like it had for the past two years. He looked at her surprised, then to the hair all over the counter and in the sink.

Valerie was suddenly released from her petrified state and looked away sheepishly, brushing tears from her face. She winced as she pressed to hard on her bruised eye. What was she gonna do now? Cut out her tear ducts like she did with her hair?

She saw her dad grimace in the mirror. "If you wanted to get your hair cut, sweetie, you could have just told me."

She let out a laugh, even though his statement wasn't really funny.

She brushed a short lock out of her face, only for it to fall right back where it had been. It was too short to tuck behind her ear now. "It got in my...eyes" Valerie said in a watery voice. "It still kinda does."

He gave her a smile and shrugged. "Well, do you want to use my clippers?"

...

The room was about the size of a closet, and yet supposedly two people had fit in there. And two metal framed beds were indeed crammed in there a little less than a meter apart. Even though it was small, anytime either Dan or Valerie made any amount of noise, it echoed loudly on the walls, which were a stark white and lacked any personal effects.

Dan sniffed haughtily. "You people live like this? There's not even a bathroom."

"Bathroom's down the hall—not that I'd imagine you would need it," Valerie said.

"Please, tell me that you don't live in one of these," Dan said dryly. "You don't actually live here, right?"

"Well, me and my dad mostly lived out of...FentonWorks before you, you know, completely _destroyed_ it."

Dan made a face. "My old house? Really?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "Yes, 'really'. It was easiest monitor the dome and the portal if we were always right next to it. We have recruits camping out in the ruins now to make sure the portal doesn't go nuclear."

Dan cast another disdainful look around the dormitory. "Still, you couldn't find anywhere else than this?"

"Its not like we can't put up decorations and things like that. It's just spartan because we took down all of A and D's stuff."

"That reminds me, I can't stay in here, Valerie. What if I get haunted?" he said with a martyred expression.

Valerie scoffed. "A ghost getting haunted. Sure."

Dan shrugged. "It could happen."

He sat down on the bed. "But I'd just kill them again if they did come back as ghosts, anyway."

Valerie's expression darkened. He should stop—he knew he should. Eventually, he'd reach her breaking point, and he would really pay then. But until that moment he'd just keep pushing, because he just couldn't help himself. Maybe a masochistic part of him wanted her to break and really hurt him, or he just had no impulse control. It was probably a little bit of both.

He gave Valerie scornful smile. "Wouldn't I be doing you a favor, Valerie dear? Since you hate ghosts so much. The thought of your friends coming back as them...how terrible would that be? Better just to put them out of their misery, right?"

"Shut up," she hissed through clenched jaws.

Dan felt the block in his throat again, and sighed.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you just incapable of going half an hour without saying some genuinely terrible shit?"

He shrugged with a blasé expression.

She sighed and ran a hand down her face. "You can talk again."

"Thanks," he deadpanned.

She rolled her eyes and looked at her watch. She let out a quiet curse when she saw what it read.

"I have to go on patrol. Stay here and don't destroy anything."

"You're just going to leave me here with nothing to do?" Dan complained.

"Twiddle your thumbs, stare at a wall, I don't care. Do whatever you do when you're not razing towns."

Dan tutted and leaned back on the bed, making it creek under his weight. "Alright, but if you come back, knock before entering the room."

Valerie frowned before realization dawned on her. Her face twisted in disgust. "I'm leaving now."

Dan chuckled as she left, but sobered as soon as the door was closed. He listened for her footsteps to fade down the hall before standing and going to the door. He made his hand intangible—and invisible since he had noticed cameras in the halls—and tried to phase it through the door. A sharp pain pierced his temples as soon as his fingers breached the other side of the door, and he quickly retracted his hand.

He sighed. "End of control test," he muttered dryly to himself.

He made a duplicate of himself and had a mental start when he saw that it also wore his human illusion. He looked away in a strange sort of self-consciousness.

Dan watched out of the corner of his eye as his doppelgänger went to phase through the wall. He was expecting to receive the typical warning jolt of pain like before, but as the doppelgänger tried to phase through the wall, it almost instantly dissolved. As it returned back to Dan, he nearly doubled and placed a hand to his head. The pain lasted for several agonizing seconds before letting him go.

"Damn it," he panted.

He began to pace like a caged animal. Someway, some small way he had to find to disobey Valerie. If he could just fine some small way to disobey her, he could find a way to break free.

He turned to the bed, grabbing the top sheet, not even to rip it, just to unmake the bed. But he found that he couldn't even do that. Just from bunching the sheets in his fists, he received a jolt of pain. Gritting his teeth, he tried to force his muscles to work, but he had as much success as he did the last time. The pain only grew around his head until he let go of the sheets.

He straightened and formed an ectoblast in his hand. If the crown wouldn't even allow him to ruin the made bed then it certainly wouldn't allow him to discharge an ectoblast in the room, and he knew that at the back of his mind. But he didn't care.

Dan held out his arm, the energy building at the center of his palm. The pain started up again. His arm began to shake as he channeled more and more energy into the blast, and the headache increasing alongside, until there was a final intense jolt like two white hot iron spikes had been driven through his temples.

Dan clutched his head and staggered back. His knees bumped into the bed, and he virtually collapsed onto it. He sat bent over clutching his head for several minutes as pain ebbed slowly. It didn't just dissipate instantly like the last couple times as if the crown was warning him that it would only get worse if he continued to test it.

As the headache lessened to the point he could think again, every curse and insult towards Valerie and Clockwork he could possibly think of ran through his mind. Finally, as the pain died out completely, his rage petered out and was replaced with exasperated despondency.

He flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

"Fuck."

Against his will, his mind began to wander, and of course the first thing his mind went to was the predicament he now found himself in.

What was he going to do?

He snorted at the thought. Well, evidently, be pushed around by Valerie. There was no apparent way out of that. Just thinking about it started to make him angry again, but it faded quickly. It could be worse, he reasoned. He could be forced to serve Clockwork. At least Valerie was fun to mess with.

But what was she going to do with him? Was she going to make him do public service or something? Like work at a soup kitchen? Or pick up trash in the park with one of those sharp pole-stick things? What were those called?

No, Valerie probably wouldn't let him near anything that could possibly be a weapon. Soup kitchen it was then.

He chuckled hollowly. He would do it obviously, but the thought of him being around a bunch of people all the time and expected to behave was ridiculous to him. If Valerie did put him in a position like that, he would find some way to screw it up.

Or maybe she'd make him do hard labor out in the fields working the lands. Honestly, he'd prefer that. It'd at least be less people to deal with.

But was that really all Valerie and Clockwork had in store of him? Menial labor? Maybe they just wanted to see him suffer. However, as much as Dan taunted her over it, and as much as she liked to pretend, he knew that wasn't her style. And what was the point of the deal in the first place if it wasn't to intact some sort of revenge? Was it some futile attempt to reform him? They'd have to be insane it they seriously thought that was possible.

Dan sighed and closed his eyes.

How long had it been since she left? Twenty minutes at most. He groaned and rolled over on his stomach. This was going to be a long night.

...

Valerie sat back on her hover board. She had it set on autopilot to cruise slowly around town.

It was 2 o'clock on the dot, and the night was quiet like every other night for the past two weeks. Even at the typically most active hours—12 to 4 am—there wasn't a whisper of activity.

But she had to stay vigilant. They were all lulled into a false sense of security by the dome, and well, look how that turned out.

She sighed. Jesus, she was never going to be able to relax after that. Plus, she had the monster that tore down the dome on a leash: Dan Phantom, scourge of Amity Park.

Why was this her life? Why did she have to be the one to protect the entire town? And she never even graduated from fucking high school. Well, that wasn't completely true. She had her GED, but she had dropped out her junior year. She tried to go back to school once it was rebuilt, but it became apparent that she couldn't keep up with school and fight Phantom.

The first two years were the worst. Dan had been furious and wild after the dome came down, and he made sure that Valerie paid for it. He didn't play around when he showed up. He destroyed and killed, and he hurt her, sometimes very badly. Her shoulder was permanently fucked up after one fight when she was sixteen. She realized then, that he really could kill her if he wanted to. Instead, his scarcely controlled rage tormented her mind and body.

The only way she could bring herself to go out and face him was to lie to herself every time.

_If he could kill me, then he would have already done it._

Everything about her life was a lie.

Valerie put her head in her hands. She wondered if anyone could relate to the position she was in. Well, Danny could...

He probably thought the same thing, or something similar.

"_Why me? I'm not even out of high school!"_

She chuckled hollowly. "God, what a life. I am so, so sorry Danny..."

That's why it was her. Because she was partially responsible for all of this.

She sighed and dry washed her face. Another dangerous line of thought. She couldn't think like that. Even if she was responsible, she's paid for it twice over now. She's done her time, and she's the warden now.

"Still feels like the other way around though," she mused out loud.

Her thoughts circled around and around for the next two hours. She wished for a blip on her tracker, anything, even a level 0 would be nice, but it was predictably silent. Sometimes she enjoyed quiet nights. It gave her time to just look up at the stars, which she rarely had time for otherwise. But at times when there was a lot on her mind, getting a quiet night like this was the worst thing that could happen.

Finally, the little alarm to tell her her shift was up went off. She was relieved for a second before she realized she was only trading sitting outside alone and thinking, for laying in her bed alone and thinking, the latter of which was objectively worse. It was now four in the morning and she was tired, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep after everything. She couldn't believe that only a few hours ago she had negotiated with the ghost of time over Dan's life—or rather afterlife. It felt like ages ago.

She went back to the compound going through the back gate, retracting her battle suit, and headed towards her room. She'd drop off her board and suit in her room—because she deserved a couple hours without a 20 kilo metal backpack on her shoulders—she'd get something to eat, take a shower, and then maybe she could get some sleep. Probably not, but she could still try.

She started to pull out her key card as she got to her quarters. She paused, card in hand hovering over the slot. Valerie cast a sidelong glance down the hall at the last room. Maybe she should at least check on him. She'd just knock on the door, she told herself. She wouldn't even go in.

And she didn't even know what she would do if he wasn't there. Sound the alarm she supposed. She told herself she was being stupid, but there was a part of her that was sure he had found away to either take off the crown or worked around her orders.

She got up to the door and knocked. He didn't answer. She knocked again a little more insistently and said, "Dan?"

She started to pull out the key card Paulina had given her. "Dan, you better answer me."

She paused another moment and when he still didn't answer, she slid the card into the electronic lock.

"Please, don't be doing anything weird," she muttered to herself.

She opened the door half expecting to find the room destroyed, bed and pillows shredded, and Dan smugly sitting in the middle of it, like a misbehaving dog. Or him simply not there. Instead, he was sprawled out on the mattress, and the overhead light was still on.

Valerie raised an eyebrow and stepped into the room. She walked around the bed to face him. An arm rested under his head and his other fell over the side of the mattress. His shirt was halfway pulled up, exposing a lean muscled back, and his hair was almost completely out of its holder. A few stray hairs straggled over his cheek.

Something squirmed in her stomach at the sight of his face. She always thought that "looking younger in your sleep" was just something that only existed in books, but Dan's face was soft and peaceful, and really did look half a decade younger than it should. And all the anger and malice was hidden away.

Before she realized what she was doing, she moved a stray piece of hair behind his ear. As soon as her fingers brushed his skin, his eyes shot open. They were bright scarlet.

Valerie jumped back, expecting some sort of attack, but to her surprise, Dan jolted away from her, as well. They both stared at each other for several seconds, wide eyed, and Valerie could feel her cheeks heating.

Finally, she cleared her throat and straightened. "Sorry," she muttered as she stood.

Dan frowned and sat up. "What?"

"I, uh, came in here to check on you—"

"No, why did you apologize?" he said, pinning her with a keen look.

She could feel herself growing even redder. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

His frown deepened. "What were you doing to me while I was asleep?"

She let out a sharp sigh. "I just came in here to check on you," she repeated herself more firmly this time.

Dan raised an eyebrow and threw his legs over the side of the bed. Looking up at her, he tilted his head to the side and gave her a suggestive look, "Oh, check on me, you say?"

She frowned and took a step back from him. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't destroy the room like a badly trained animal."

He raised an eyebrow, still giving her bedroom eyes. "You're lying. You ordered me not to destroy anything, remember? Or do you doubt the power of your magical MacGuffin?"

Valerie frowned. "No, I—" She cut herself off with a sigh and raised a hand to rub a spot over her eyebrow. "I've just had a long night. I'm starving and I'm tired. I think I'm gonna go now."

She turned to leave. Dan shot up from the bed and blurted, "Wait."

Valerie looked over her shoulder at him with a questioning look.

He scuffed his foot against the ground and started to raise a hand to rub the back of his neck before he stopped himself. It was an uncharacteristic display of awkwardness, and a familiar gesture she had seen Danny do a thousand times.

"Uh, where are you going?" he said trying to recover face.

She turned her full body to face him. "I was going to grab something to eat from the mess hall and then go to bed. Why?"

He hesitated for a second then said, "Can I come?"

Valerie blinked. "Why?" she asked again.

He shrugged. "I'm bored, obviously."

Valerie started to fidget. Clockwork said it would be in their best interest if she tried to "befriend" Dan. Valerie didn't agree, but Phantom seemed to already be doing half the work for her. She was still reluctant to spend any time she didn't absolutely have to with him.

"You were just a sleep. You're not still tired?"

"I don't sleep because I'm tired," he explained tersely.

She sighed and massaged her brow. "Alright, you can come, but try not to act like a maniac."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Birth Of the Cruel

..

_Sick, sickened, I'm sickening, I'm stricken by the fist_

_Blessed are the fires that have burned me_

_Listen to this, the lesson is, never underestimate the agony_

_Death of the fool, birth of the cruel_

_.._

Danny hopped on the cold metal table. He eyed the metal cuffs built in and felt a shiver run down his spine. It wreaked of mad science, but he wouldn't let his qualms get in the way of what needed to be done.

Vlad from the other side of the operating table said, "Are you sure you want to go through with this, Daniel?" It was about the fourth time he had asked.

Danny glanced down at his hand as it unconsciously curled into a fist. He could feel the ectoplasm moving inside of him. He used to think it was just an extension of himself, but now it felt alien, like a foreign pathogen, or poison infecting him.

"Daniel?" Vlad asked again.

Danny twisted around at his waist, temper abnormally short, he glared and snapped, "Yes, I'm sure."

As soon as he said that, time seemed to stop, the slight worry on Vlad's face frozen there. And then a violent shiver ran up Danny's spine, a puff of fog billowed from his mouth. He whipped around where a blue ghost with purple clothes floated in front of him.

"Danny Fenton, I strongly recommend you reconsider your course of action," the ghost said.

Danny jumped off the table and transformed. "Who the hell are you?" he growled. He surprised himself with the amount of venom in his voice.

"Clockwork, the Master Of Time," he answered shorty. "And you're future will be soaked in blood and death if you proceed with this."

"Master Of Time?" Danny looked around the room again. The clock above the door had stopped. He looked back to Clockwork. "And you can see the future. Then why didn't you stop all of this from happening?" he said somewhat skeptical.

Clockwork gave him an apologetic look, but Danny read it as pity. He felt energy collect in his palms.

"I'm sorry—truly I am. There was only about a thirty percent chance for all the events to line up in such an awful way. My...employers decided it wasn't enough of a risk to intervene."

Danny felt his stomach drop. "You knew—you really did...and you didn't do anything? All this time...you could have stopped the accident that started this in the first place!" His voice steadily rose until he was screaming. "Why now?! I've lost _everything_!"

"Because you're about to make the biggest mistake of your life. There might not be any part of you left to save after you do this."

"No!" Danny shouted. "I'm taking care of this," he said, pressing a hand to his chest—to Phantom's chest. "I'm not Amity Park's hero anymore! I can't be! This thing—" he cut himself off, grabbing his head. "It's not the same—we're not the same," he said through clenched teeth.

"You'll learn to control it," Clockwork said, his voice lacking conviction.

"No, no, _no_! I don't want to control it. I want to move on!"

Without thinking of the consequences, he threw an ectoblast at Clockwork. Suddenly, time resumed. Clockwork was gone. The ectoblast hit the wall, leaving dark green scorch marks.

Danny heard Vlad gasp behind him and turned around.

"Are you, alright?" Vlad asked. "When did you transform?"

Danny looked down at himself at the black and white jumpsuit. He touched the stylized 'D' on his chest. He didn't feel sad at the sight of it anymore. He just felt empty.

"I'm fine," he answered quietly.

He dropped to the ground, and tried to transform back, the blue ring of light appearing around his waist but quickly dissipated. Panic made his stomach churn. He tried again and this time, though it was slow and difficult, he turned human again.

He avoided Vlad's concerned expression, and jumped back on the operating table and laid down.

"Let's just get this over with."

...

It was so late—or perhaps early—that they had started serving breakfast. A few people kicked about, and Dan suspected at least one or two people haunted the mess hall at all times. A TV hung on each side of the room, displaying the news. Dan even noted with amusement that all of the same old cast was present.

He looked away from the TV to Valerie. She stared off into the middle distance, slowly chewing watery scrambled eggs. Her right hand sat on the metal case holding her equipment. Dan wondered if she was paranoid of him or if it was just habit to have her battle suit within arm's reach at all times. Probably the former. He had a feeling she would be wearing her battle suit if they weren't in public. It was rather novel to see her in normal military fatigues, though.

He nudged her with his elbow. "Something on your mind?"

She jumped and cursed under her breath. Dan smirked.

She turned to him with a frown. "What the hell kind of question is that?"

Dan shrugged. "Just noticed you had a thousand yard stare," he said as he snagged a piece of bacon off her tray.

She looked at him funny as he took a bite. "You eat too?"

"Sure. Not that I need to, but I can."

He tried not to show just how much he savored the taste. He hadn't eaten in ten years, and had almost forgotten what food tasted like. He crammed the rest of the bacon strip into his mouth.

"So what where you thinking about?" he said past the mouthful of food.

She sent him an annoyed look. "What's it to you?"

"I'm just trying to start a conversation."

Valerie snorted. "'A conversation', right. I don't want to have a 'conversation'. Just about every time you open your mouth, it's either to say some maniacal supervillain bullshit, or some stupid innuendo."

He held up his hands. "I won't say any 'supervillain bullshit', I promise." He couldn't promise about the innuendos, though.

She rolled her eyes. "It's like I'm in an abusive relationship," she muttered.

His expression dropped. "You hold all the power in this situation."

She averted her gaze and squirmed a bit. Dan sighed and looked back up at the TV, letting silence hang between them.

He almost startled when she said, "I was just thinking of...'this situation'."

"Specifically...?"

"Specifically, why the hell did I agree to it?" she said wryly.

He chuckled. "Maybe you're a masochist deep down."

She gave him an unamused look. "Try again."

He looked up and pretended to rack his brains. "Maybe...because you're secretly madly in love with me and can't bare a world without the infamous Dan Phantom."

She actually laughed at that. "Yeah, fuck no."

He could guess the real reason she had agreed, and had pretty much already said it out loud, but he wouldn't bring it up again at this moment. He didn't want to start another argument at right then, which was admittedly strange for him. But they were in public anyway, and he didn't feel like causing a scene.

She added lowering her voice. "Also, maybe don't mention Phantom around—fuck."

Valerie suddenly cut herself off and became a little too engrossed in her breakfast.

Dan raised and eyebrow. "What?"

"Nathan Greene, twelve o'clock. You remember him?" She muttered a curse under her breath and said mostly to herself, "Damn it, he's early."

Dan looked up. A man stood awkwardly by the entrance to the mess hall. He was definitely taller than Nathan used to be, but was still somewhat stocky, and he possessed the signature red Afro, though it wasn't quite as wild as it used to be. He was staring at the pair before Dan looked up at him. Nathan quickly averted his gaze and scurried to the breakfast line, which was starting to fill up even so early in the morning.

Dan turned back to Valerie with an amused smirk. "He's really still at it?"

Valerie frowned and took a sip of her coffee. "He's persistent, I'll give him that," she muttered into her cup.

"Yikes," Dan said flatly. "Does he still chase you around like when we were kids?"

"No, no, but he definitely still holds a flame for me. I try to avoid being anywhere near the compound on Valentine's Day. But just about every time I run into him, he still tries to ask me on a date no matter what day it is. Unfortunately, since we're in closer quarters now, run-ins will probably be a lot more often."

Dan tutted and shook his head. "I should have killed him when I had the chance. I'm the only one that gets to torment you."

"Honestly, I'd take a fight with you over being cornered by him any day."

Dan dramatically put a hand over his chest. "Aww, really?"

"Yes. Also that's strike one."

He frowned. "What?"

"You said you wouldn't say any supervillain shit, and I'm holding you to that. You strike out and I'm sending you back to your room."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. That wasn't supervillain shit. I was just joking. Although, if you want me to...you know..." He mimed breaking someone's neck, and making the appropriate cracking sound along with it.

Valerie gave him an unamused look. "That's strike two."

"Come on! I didn't say anything bad that time!"

"But you mimed it," she pointed out.

"_But_ I said I wouldn't _say_ any supervillain shit. I made no promises about miming it," Dan said, a grin working itself onto his face.

Valerie snorted, but was smiling now too. "I'm still counting it."

"Seriously though, if you want me to..."

"And that's strike three, buddy."

He raised an eyebrow. "So I'm your buddy now?"

She gave him a warning look and pointed to the exit.

"Okay, okay," he said chuckling. "I'll be good. I won't threaten anybody else's life."

"Oh, really? You're going to stick to it this time?"

"Yes really. Cross my heart and hope to die," he said, actually crossing over his chest where his heart would be.

She gave him an unimpressed look. "You don't have a heart."

"Alright, then cross my core and hope to...fade, I guess. Just give me another chance will you?" He gave her the most charming smile he could muster.

"What's the magic word?" she said, actively trying not to smile.

"Abracadabra."

She snorted. "No smart ass. Try again."

He rolled his eyes dramatically. "Alright," he said, heaving a suffering sigh. "Pretty please, with a cherry on top?"

Finally, she let herself grin. "See? Was that so hard?" she nearly purred.

Dan's core seemed to rev at the same time Valerie blinked and turned away with a hint of pink on her cheeks.

Well, that was weird...

Dan cleared his throat. "So back to your stalker."

"Don't offer to kill him again," Valerie said tiredly.

"No, no, I just wanted to ask why he's here, and if you want me to run him off."

She said almost reluctantly, "No. He has an excuse to be here so early."

Dan gave her a dubious look. "Oh?"

"Yeah, he's in R&D, and they've been working double time to get the Militia's ghost sensor back up and running." She shot him a glare as she took another sip of her coffee. She said with a lowered voice, "You didn't just fry the Shield, you know. You fried our ghost detection system. We'd be sitting ducks if my tracker had been screwed up too."

He hummed, somewhat self-satisfied. "Oh yeah... I hadn't really thought about that, but it makes sense that the ghostly wail would knock out stuff like that too. Have any idea how bad it is?"

Valerie shrugged. "I'm not a tech person, but from what I've heard, really bad."

Dan started to retort, but something on the news caught his attention. The volume was turned way down, but he could still hear it just fine.

"...Masters, the elusive billionaire has finally 'come out of hiding'. Ten years ago his estate burned to the ground, and he barely escaped with his life. Not long after he had finished reconstruction of his mansion he retreated into it, and transferred most of his company to his business partners. But now he is willing to shed some light on those events. We'll have more information on that at five o'clock."

Valerie kicked his foot underneath the table. "Anybody home?"

He turned to Valerie with a frown. "What?"

"You're eyes are red, literally. You might want to fix that before someone sees."

He he shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What was that?" Valerie asked.

"Nothing," he dismissed. "Uh, what were we talking about?"

"The sensors," Valerie said like she was annoyed that she had to remind him.

He lowered his hand and turned his attention back to her. "Right. Right... So have they made any progress on it?"

She sighed. "Not much, it seems. Why do you care?"

Dan scoffed. "Again, I'm just making conversation. And why not? You built that thing from scratch. Why can't your people repair it?"

"My dad pieced it together mostly from the nearly indecipherable blueprints the...Fentons left behind. And we kind of don't have those blueprints anymore, because, oh, yeah, _Fentonworks was completely destroyed_."

Dan tutted. "Still. I could probably fix it, myself."

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "You? Fix things?"

"If you're referring to my literal capability of fixing things, I'll have you know I have a degree in mechanical engineering," he said. "Although, you're probably talking about my proclivity towards destruction, which is fair."

"You went to—?" She narrowed her eyes. "Oh, right. I keep forgetting you...fused with Plasmuis."

"I wish I could forget," he muttered.

"Why did you do it in the first place?"

He looked around. Nathan, the little worm, was still staring at them, though he tried to play it off by looking away quickly, but now from a table across the cafeteria. No one was close to them and a quiet chatter settled over the mess hall. He leaned an elbow against the table, resting his chin in his hand.

"I was still only half a ghost. I was unstable." He turned away from Valerie and closed his eyes as he felt them go red again. "They both knew full well I would be. They both wanted me to fade out—or at least Fenton did," he growled quietly.

"You're separating yourself from him again."

He opened his eyes and directed a frown at her. "_Technically,_ we were two separate entities at that point. And our motivations had sort of...diverged even before then."

Ectoplasm (He was just a pile of ectoplasm wasn't he?) did what it did, and the ectoplasm in Danny Fenton's bloodstream was no different. It clung to all the anger and sadness, transforming it into something other than the hero of Amity Park. And Danny Fenton could feel it.

Valerie scoffed. "By your 'motivations' diverging' do you mean you wanting to destroy Amity Park, and Fenton wanting to stop you?"

Dan frowned an turned away from her. "I was playing nice," he said. "Why don't you return the favor?"

"Well, it's true isn't it?"

He shot her a glare and said a little louder than he should have, "Yes, because I learned that no matter what you do, the universe will still shit on you. Nothing matters."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Oh, so you don't care about anything, huh? Because nothing matters. That's bullshit."

His hands curled into fists as his nails grew longer, cutting into his palms. "Is that so?" he said in a dangerously calm voice.

She leaned in an inch and hissed, "Yeah, because you _obviously_ care about destroying my home."

So that was all she had on him? Dan uncurled his fists, mouth curling into a wry smirk. He let out a quiet chuckle as he said, "You know me _so_ well, don't you?" His words dripped with sarcasm.

She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He snorted and turned away from her.

When he was first transformed to the being he was now and set loose on the world, he just wanted to destroy Amity Park in a petty act of spite against his already dead human half. But then he was shut out and became so furious—insane with it really. He thought he was obsessed with destroying the city. He didn't know if obsessions could change like that, but it was the only thing that made sense.

As years passed, Dan became resigned that he might never destroy Amity Park. And along the way, he eventually realized that he'd become a monster, and he hated himself for it. Destroying Amity Park became a desperate attempt to make himself fade out. In reality, trying to destroy his hometown had been an act of habit rather than malicious desire for years before he finally broke again—changed again and developed the power to finally feed his obsession.

But then Clockwork had to meddle. Dan felt his muscles tense just thinking of the time ghost. He'd go through it all over again just to piss off the Master Of Time. If he had to kill his friends (they weren't really _his_ friends anyway), and his family (they would hate him if they knew...), so be it. He'd already killed them once. If Clockwork wanted to kill him, he'd have to do it directly, not with the underhanded bullshit he tried to pull.

"So you're not gonna elaborate on that? Not even gonna give a snappy retort? Just gonna ignore me?" Valerie asked.

Without sparing her a glance, he said, "Yeah, I am."

"Alright, fine," she muttered. Dan thought he detected a sliver of guilt in her tone.

There were several beats of silence before she spoke up again. "Just out of curiosity...what parts of you are...him?"

Dan raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"You know, Plasmius."

He snorted. "Oh. Not much. Mostly just stuff he knew, but I don't have concrete memories or emotions from Vlad like I do from Danny. Thank god for that."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

His mouth twisted into a grimace. "I'd rather not say."

Valerie looked like she would press him for further explanation, but she glanced to the side and put her face in her hands. "He's coming over here," she muttered.

Dan looked up, and indeed the little weasel was walking towards them with a determined look—and he was glaring at Dan.

Dan blinked in surprise, but surprise quickly turned to anger. That insect had the fucking gall to look at him like that? He could kill him with just a flick of his wrist. He could turn him into a pile of bloody chunks!

As Nathan reached their table, Dan started to stand, but he froze when he felt Valerie's hand on his thigh underneath the table. She shot him a look that said 'stay still and shut up' then turned to Nathan with a small, but cordial smile. It wasn't a true order, of course, but Dan was too shocked to do anything because her hand was _still on his leg._ Finally, she removed her hand and put it back in her own lap, and his brain could resume normal function.

Seriously, what the fuck was that? Couldn't she have just ordered him to stay down? And he couldn't understand why the hell was he so uncomfortable with the light contact.

And _why_ was he still thinking about it?

Nathan sent him one more dirty look that he couldn't care less about in that moment then turned to Valerie, his expression doing a complete 180.

"Uh, Valerie, I just came over to make sure you're okay," he said, his nasally voice hardly changed from when they were in high school. "You looked pretty unhappy talking with him." Nathan punctuated his statement with a glare at Dan. Dan felt his core surge and had to turn away, so he didn't flash Nathan with demonic red eyes.

Valerie sighed. "Yeah, Nathan I'm fine. This is Dean, by the way. We're old friends."

In a spur of the moment decision, Dan laid his arm across Valerie's shoulders. He felt her go rigid, but before she could do or say anything, he said, "Don't be so modest, Valerie dear." He looked up at Nathan, staring him directly in his shocked eyes. "We're dating."

Valerie turned to him with a horrified look. He pulled her flush to his side and leaned in, pressing her cheek to his.

He whispered into her ear, "Play along."

She pushed out of his hold and glared. He was sure she would call him out, but at least he paid her back for touching him.

Instead she said, "Damn it! Scream it from the rooftops why don't you? Let the whole god damn town know."

Wow, that worked?

He chuckled nervously. "Well, we couldn't keep it a secret forever, right?"

Dan glanced at Nathan who gaped like a fish. He smirked. Make everyone miserable and uncomfortable: check.

Valerie stood up and slung her pack over her shoulders before grabbing her tray. "I'm gonna go put up my tray. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"Wouldn't dream of it, my dear," he said flashing her a grin.

She rolled her eyes and stalked off.

Dan stood and stepped over to Nathan who was still frozen in place. He clapped a hand roughly on the man's shoulder, making Nathan startle violently. He looked up at Dan with fear in his eyes. Good, just as it should be.

"Valerie's told me a little bit about you." Dan's voice was low and menacing even though he kept a pleasant expression on his face.

"W-what? I mean, what did she say?" Nathan asked, voice raising several octaves.

Dan snorted and smiled dangerously. "You've stalked her for over ten years. She's more afraid of you than Phantom."

"No, you're lying!" Nathan cried. "I've been nothing but nice to her!"

Dan shook his head. "That's not how she sees it." His grip on Nathan's shoulder tightened making the redhead wince. "And you better stay away from her. She's too nice to make you stop, but I'm not."

Dan would have gone on, but he saw Valerie walking back towards them. He let go of the other man, shoving him slightly. She passed a shrewd eye over Nathan, probably just to make sure he wasn't bleeding or missing any body parts, then said to Dan, "Alright, come on. I've got a lot of paperwork that needs to be done."

Dan tensed again as Valerie took his hand, halfway wrapping her arm around his. She led him out of the cafeteria. Immediately upon exiting the doors, Valerie stiffly pulled her hand away.

He awkwardly rubbed his arm where he still felt lingering warmth.

"That was good acting," he said.

She didn't respond or even spare him a glance. Her expression was neutral, but Dan noticed the tightness in her shoulders and her jaw.

He had crossed a line. It would be funny if this was her last straw—and so soon, too!

As soon as they got to her office—which was a Spartan little room, with only a desk, a couple chairs, and a bookshelf by the door stacked with a few books that he wasn't sure were just for decoration if she actually enjoyed reading—she immediately began closing all the blinds.

Dan watched her with a raised eyebrow. "Uh, Valerie? What are you doing?" Dan asked even though he knew it was so there wouldn't be any witnesses. She would probably kill him, but he was at peace with his fate.

She ignored him until the last window to her office was covered. She then turned to him and promptly punched him in the face. He grunted and staggered back a step.

"What the fuck was that?" she hissed furiously.

Dan wiped under his nose, his hand coming away with atomic green ectoplasm. He would be mad, but he was more impressed by the force of the punch. Of course, his nose would be healed in a few seconds anyway, but still.

He sent her a glare nonetheless. "Not nice."

"You know what else isn't nice? Forcing me to be your fake girlfriend!" She let out a sharp sigh and put her face in her hand. "That's not a sentence I thought I'd ever have to say, but here I am."

"You didn't have to play along."

"Yes, I did! Do you know how suspicious it would've looked if I had called you out on it?"

Dan straightened out his shirt with a huff. "At least it'll deter Nathan from making anymore advances."

Valerie drew in a deep breath and ran a hand over her face. "But at what fucking cost?"

"Paulina already suspected it, and it's a good excuse for me being here. Why not play along?"

"That's easy for you to say."

Dan made a face. "What are you trying to say?"

She looked away and crossed her arms. "Well, you always seem so...eager."

He actually threw his head back and laughed. "Everything about that statement is just ridiculous. Simply the way you phrased it is precious, but you actually think...?" He chuckled. "We're bitter enemies, Valerie. All the innuendos and teasing was just to get a rise out of you. It's hilarious when you get all flustered and red.

She raised an eyebrow. "You're lying," she said matter-of-factly.

He blinked then frowned. "No, I'm not."

Her expression morphed into something akin to incredulity. "You actually believe that, don't you?"

He averted his gaze.

Sometimes he would...well, he wasn't blind, but, no, no, it wasn't like how she was implying. They hated each other. He could never really think of her like that.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Because it's the truth. Sorry I can't stroke your ego."

She snorted. "I don't have an ego. But you do. Still trying to keep up the big bad villain act? You don't care about anything right?"

He scowled. "I am the villain, and no, I don't."

Valerie tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Then why have you always held back?"

His expression became guarded. "What are you talking about?"

She rolled her eyes. "You _know_ what I'm talking about."

They stared at each other for several seconds, sizing up the other's conviction. As Dan realized she wasn't backing down, a hollow smile began creep on his face. "Are you finally admitting that I'm stronger than you?" It was supposed to be a joke, but his tone was sober.

"I've known for a long time. I wasn't going to bring it up, but then you had to say that bullshit."

Dan looked away, clenching and unclenching his jaw. Should he answer, or shouldn't he? Which would be worse. He could feel Valerie's eyes on him, waiting for a response.

He decided it would look like a concession if he stayed quiet. Finally, he sighed and said, "I don't know why, but I can't kill you. I _hate_ you, but..." He looked away, frowning. How could he put it? His feelings for her didn't even make sense to him, how could he ever explain them with words?

"But...I'm the last person from your past," she supplied. That wasn't quite it, but it was good enough.

"Yes—nearly the last anyway."

He squirmed. She was still watching him closely. "But it is not because I have some secret burning desire for you. I'm just sentimental... I thought when I finally destroyed Amity Park, I could..." he trailed off shaking his head. "Never mind."

They stood there in silence for several beats. Then Valerie sighed and turned away from him. She rounded her desk and sat down. She immediately pulled over a stack of paper work and began reading the form on top.

Dan raised an eyebrow. "So that's it then?"

She glanced up at him. "You _want_ to keep talking about your twisted, contradicting emotions? Did I misread the room?"

"No..."

"Then why don't you sit down? I hate the way you tower over me all the time," she said without even looking up.

Still somewhat confused, Dan sat down in the chair by the door.

"You know I saw that punch coming from a mile away," he said.

"Mhm," Valerie hummed, not looking up from her paperwork.

Dan sighed and pulled a book from the shelf beside him. He glanced at the title, _The Prophecy_ by Kahlil Gibran. He opened it and began to read.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Culling Voices

..

_Disembodied voices deepen my _

_Suspicious tendencies_

_Conversations we've never had_

_Imagined interplay_

_Psychopathy _

_Don't you dare point that at me_

..

Valerie's pen hovered over the dotted line as she starred blankly at the paper in front of her. She blinked and glanced at her watch, grimacing when she saw it read 11:32 am. Sighing, she dropped her pen and rubbed her eyes. She just needed to get over the midday hump, then she'd be fine, she was sure. She could at least fill out paperwork until 6 pm, then she could retire early.

"I'm going to get coffee," she announced as she stood.

Dan glanced up from his book. He passed an unimpressed eye over her. "You look dead on your feet, and that's coming from me," he said. "You should go to bed."

Valerie narrowed her eyes. "What was that?" She put a hand on her hip. "I 'should go to bed'? You actually said that and you didn't insert some innuendo in there?"

He looked offended. "Please, Valerie, I'm not all sexual innuendos and horrible destruction. I'm a multi dimensional character."

Valerie gave him a deadpan look. "Stay here," she said before rounding her desk and walking to the door.

She made it to the mess hall fine. It was just on her way back to her office that she hit a snag. As soon as she rounded the last corner, her office just at the end of the hall, she came face to face with Paulina.

"Oh, lord," she muttered under her breath.

Just as expected, as soon as Paulina saw Valerie, her eyes lit up.

"Guess what I just heard!" she said without even saying 'good morning'.

"What?" Valerie deadpanned, taking a sip from her to-go cup.

Paulina waved a flippant hand. "Well, you already know what I'm going to say. But honestly I was just joking yesterday when you showed up with the new boy. How long has this secret little affair been going on?" she said giving Valerie a lascivious look.

Valerie tried to think quickly, but going on 32 hours without sleep was not conducive to on-the-spot thinking.

"Uh, um, a year?" she said more like a question than a statement.

Paulina gave her a dismayed look. "You don't even know?" Her expression then changed to one of hurt and anger, both played up for theatrics. "And you didn't tell me?!"

Valerie blinked. "Which one should I address first?"

Paulina gave her an annoyed look and made a helpless gesture.

Valerie huffed. "Okay, listen, we...don't really keep track of stuff like that." She avoided Paulina's eyes and took a sip of her coffee to hide her face.

Paulina tutted, and put a hand on her hip. "Then how are you going to keep track of your kids' ages?"

Valerie nearly choked. As burning hot liquid entered her lungs, she could see it then. Her grave stone would read: Valerie Denice Gray, beloved protector of Amity Park, Colonel of the Militia, and the fierce Red Huntress, killed in action by inhaling a lungful of scalding hot coffee.

Paulina patted her on the back, looking both worried for Valerie's life and amused by the situation.

Finally, when she was able to somewhat breath again, she choked out, "Paulina, what the fuck?" She paused to let out another hacking cough. "I'm not having kids with him!"

She drew in another ragged breath and straightened. Paulina held out her cup, which Valerie hadn't even realized she'd taken from her. With a huff she took it back, and took another cautious sip.

Paulina chuckled, still patting Valerie lightly on the back. "I was just joking, chica. But now that I think about it, you two would make some really cute babies."

Valerie gave her a halfhearted glare. "I swear, Paulina, you test me every day."

The Latina grinned. "Well, that's what best friends are for, no?"

Valerie rolled her eyes. "If you say so."

"So why did you keep it a secret for so long?" Paulina asked.

Valerie groaned. "Can't you just let me go? You almost killed me."

A little of the humor leaked out of her. "No, really, Val. Come on. Just answer me that, and I'll let you get back to your boy toy."

Valerie wrinkled her nose. "I'm going back to my office to do paperwork and nothing else. And don't call him my 'boy toy' ever again, please and thank you."

Paulina tilted her head and placed her arms akimbo. "Well, you know what they say: 'all work and no play,' etc, etc."

She gave Paulina a deadpan look. "I like being dull. And to answer your question, it's for many reasons but mostly Phantom."

Paulina gave her a somewhat frustrated look. "Alright, that's valid, but could have told _me_ at least."

"No, because I wanted to forgo this conversation for as long I could."

"But I tell you all about my relationships!" Paulina cried.

Valerie almost said, 'And I wish you wouldn't,' but she knew that would be too mean. Instead she said, "I'm just private, and I know how much you like to gossip."

Paulina frowned. "You know I wouldn't talk about it if you told me not to. That's just an excuse. You're too damn private, Valerie. You need to open up to people even if it's just me or your Dad. By the way, you haven't told your Dad either, have you?"

Valerie pursed her lips. "No," she answered tersely. "But I don't think I need life advice from someone who fucks away their problems."

The moment the words were past her lips she knew that she was too harsh. She started to say she was sorry, but Paulina chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "You're right, Chica, but at least I fuck. You should stop being so frigid and show Dean who's boss."

Valerie made a face. "How do you know he and I—"

"Oh, I can tell," she said giving Valerie a knowing look. "You're having a fight, aren't you?"

Valerie sighed. Thinking up a lie she said, "I didn't even want it to be out in the open this soon, because...Phantom could still come back."

Paulina hummed in thought and passed a shrewd eye over Valerie. "I think you're just afraid people'll find out you have emotions."

"This is _not_ about my reputation."

"Oh, lighten up, chica," Paulina said, putting a hand on Valerie's shoulder. "It's normal to have emotions. Everyone gets them from time to time. It's not like the end of the world."

"Yeah, alright," Valerie grumbled. "I really need to get back to work."

"Fine, I'll let you go," Paulina said, starting to turn away.

Valerie did the same, but paused when Paulina called out, "Oh, wait, one more thing!"

Valerie half turned to her, raising an eyebrow.

"Me and Stacy are gonna go to the club tomorrow night, so clear your schedule."

Valerie frowned. "I have patrol tomorrow night. I can't."

Paulina gave her a genuine look of concern. "Val, you just got done with two graveyard shifts in a row. You need to take a break."

"And getting waisted is any better?" Valerie shot back.

Paulina pouted. "At least it's more fun."

"Fun won't protect the town."

"Valerie, come on. I'm legit worried about your health at this point," Paulina whined.

Valerie drew in a deep breath. "I'll think about it." She probably wouldn't, but she needed to get Paulina off her back, at least for now.

Paulina still looked skeptical, but she said, "Okay, see ya," and started to walk away.

Valerie let out a breath and went on her way, as well. She got to her office, swiped her keycard, and went in. She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Dan sitting in the chair by the door. She had forgotten he was there.

He gave her knowing smile. "So I heard you two talking about me," he said without preamble.

Valerie's face started to heat up all over again. "We were all the way at the other end of the hall. It's not like we were being loud or anything."

He shrugged. "I just have really good hearing. Comes in handy sometimes."

Valerie went back to her desk and sat down. "Do all ghosts have hearing like that?"

He looked back down to his book as if the line of conversation wasn't worth his time of day. He shrugged and gave a noncommittal hum.

Valerie drew in a deep breath. "Alright, what did you hear?"

"Pretty much all of it."

Valerie closed her eyes. "Oh god," she muttered under her breath.

"By the way, why a year?"

She blinked. "What?"

"That you and 'Dean' have been together."

She shook her head. "Oh, right. I just thought up a number and said it."

"Ah, I just wanted to know if you had some story behind it. Wanted to get our stories straight."

"Also," he said, not missing a beat, "I heard that you got invited to go to a club with your 'friends'. That made me laugh a little bit. Do you do anything besides this—" he waved a hand at the paperwork on her desk "—and picking fights with me?"

"I have a life outside of work."

"Oh, really? When was the last time you've done anything fun—unless you consider fighting me fun, in which case I think you have a couple other problems."

Valerie scoffed. "You're one to talk. You go out and attack towns along the border of the wastes just to get me out to fight you, like you derive some sort of sick pleasure out of getting your ass shot at."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that deflection I sense?"

Valerie sighed and rolled her eyes. "I don't know when I went out with friends last, okay? Maybe a couple months ago. Is that what you want to hear, you sicko? You wanna know my life is just as terrible as yours?"

"Valerie, please," he said holding a hand to his chest. "I'm merely concerned for a friend." She scoffed at that. "And it sounds like you've been working yourself even harder lately. You've been working yourself into the ground for—what, a month since everything went down?

"It's only been two and a half weeks, and no I've not been working myself into the ground."

Dan gave her a skeptical look.

She pressed her lips into a thin line. "I've just been working harder. Since you came and almost destroyed the town for good, I realized we've all been slacking off." That and she had to be absolutely exhausted before she could get to sleep and stay asleep nowadays.

Dan chuckled darkly. "'Slacking off'? Oh, please. There was never anything you could have done to stop me. I'm inevitable. And you working yourself to death only brings me closer to what I was always meant to do."

Valerie paused and lowered her gaze to the papers on the desk, pretending to read them. She, of course, had already thought of what would happen if she died. With the things that the Master Of Time showed her happening in the near future, her chances of mortality increased exponentially, but it wouldn't make sense for Clockwork to hand Dan over to her if she was about to meet an untimely death.

She realized with a start that she was putting a lot of faith into a ghost. But she wasn't an impulsive little girl anymore. She could logic things out, and logically she should be able to trust Clockwork. It didn't make sense for him to go to so much trouble to just have Dan be set loose on the world again. And she didn't have much of a choice anyway.

However, there was definitely something he wasn't telling her...

Finally, she looked up at him with a scowl. "That's not what's going to happen, and even if it was, I'd kill you before then."

He gave her an almost sad looking smile. "If you could kill me, you would have already done it—and I don't mean that to say you are physically unable to. You and I are in the same boat, Valerie. We're both too sentimental."

Valerie was the first to break eye contact. She looked back down at her signature, now with an unseemly ink blot right in the middle of it.

"I'm just using you. That's all this is," she muttered.

"Let's face it, you're not a queen, you're a pawn."

She finished her signature and move on to the next document. "But a pawn can become a queen."

He went quiet. Valerie skimmed over the document, seconds passed. Finally she looked back up to him. He wore a begrudging smirk.

"Touché."

...

For the rest of the day, they switched between light conversation, heated arguments, and then long stretches of silence, usually in that order but not exclusively.

Finally, Valerie looked at her watch again, and this time it read 6:06. She sighed and wished it didn't.

She had told herself to work to six earlier, dozing off at the time, but now that six had rolled around, she was wide awake. She should try to sleep though, she really should. She knew she was a train wreck.

Valerie stood with a sigh and stretched. Maybe if she took another hour to work out, it would tire her out enough. It could also make it even harder for her to sleep, but it was worth a try.

"Going somewhere?" Dan asked, not looking up from the book he was reading, another one off her dad's bookshelf, having finished the first one he picked up.

"To the gym then I'm gonna turn in early."

"Pretty early to turn in. Even to turn in early," he said, looking up this time, and smirked. "You're starting to turn into an old lady."

"It's not that early. Unless they're on a night shift, recruits around here go to sleep at about eight because most have to wake up before dawn."

Dan rolled his eyes. "If you say so."

Valerie rounded her desk and was halfway to the door when Dan set aside his book and stood up. She paused and eyed him warily.

"What are you doing?"

He shrugged, feigning ignorance. "What do you mean?"

Valerie narrowed her eyes.

He said, "Are you just going to order me to stay here again? Or send me to my room without any of the usual evening rituals? How do you think that would look? We are still concerned about appearances aren't we?"

She huffed. "You know this shadowing me everywhere thing is already getting old."

Irritation flashed over his face. "You think I want to follow you around like a dog? At least give me something to do. Then we won't have this problem. You brought me here. You said you'd make me 'pay off my debt'. Well, do your worst. Just get it over with, already!"

"I'm trying—" she nearly yelled "—to think of something you won't majorly fuck up if I set you to it!"

"Put me in research and development," he said.

"What?"

"Put me in R&D, let me fix your ghost sensors and whatever systems have problems. I'm sure there are many. Maybe we can even get to work at putting up the shields again." He said the last bit as if the thought amused him.

She narrowed her eyes. "Let me get this straight, you want me to put you where you'd be in direct contact with some of our most crucial information and most important instruments to keep the town safe. No _fucking_ way."

"I could have them operational within a couple weeks. I already have an idea of what went wrong, and I bet your staff still doesn't have a clue."

"I don't care. My answer is still no."

"Your worry is misplaced. You have near complete control over me. You could literally order me not to 'majorly fuck up' anything, and I would have to obey," he spat. "Hell, I bet you could order me to forget anything I saw, and I would instantly forget it."

Valerie's mouth set in a grim line. She felt sick at the thought of controlling him like that. Could she order him to forget his entire past? Could she tell him how to feel, how to think? A shiver of disgust ran down her spine. She wished she could have refused Clockwork's offer. She didn't want that kind of power over anyone.

"I would never do something like that," she said weakly.

"Why?" He snapped. "Isn't this what you want? To make me your puppet to jerk around and then cut the strings when you're done with me?"

Valerie felt anger flare in her chest. "Don't act like you're the victim. You deserve this."

His jaw set and he took a threatening step towards her. "And what about what you deserve?"

She closed the gap between them and squared her shoulders. She had questioned herself, and she would question herself in the future, too. But right in that moment she understood her place in the world and in their history.

"For _years _you controlled my waking life and my dreams because every time you got bored, you would go burn a town to get me, your favorite _toy_, to come play with you, and when I eventually got to sleep, you'd haunt my nightmares. You killed my friends and nearly did the same to my dad. You trapped us under a dome, cut us off from the rest of the world. _You_ controlled my life for the past ten _years_, and you _still_ control my life, you bastard!"

He crossed his arms and gave her a cruel smirk. "Then I guess we're just two peas in a miserable pod—causing each other's pain."

"I didn't kill your family and friends," she hissed, her hands tightening into fists at her sides.

The smirk dropped from his face, his lips thinning. "But you could have helped."

She could have said she was sorry, because she really was. Or she could have pointed out that everything he's done was ten times worse than anything she could _ever_ do. But instead she simply said, "I _hate_ you."

He let out a mirthless chuckle. "Same here, sweetheart."

She had to leave now. She couldn't stand to be around him a second longer. Valerie pushed past him, but he caught her arm in a loose grip, and said, "Wait."

She pulled out of his hold and drew an ectogun at her hip in one motion. Dan raised an eyebrow and gave the gun an unimpressed glance. Valerie took out the keycard to Dan's room, stepped forward, and slapped it against his chest, making him scramble to catch it as she stepped back from him again just as quickly.

"Go back to your room, and don't kill anyone while you're out of my sight."

He looked at her with a cold expression, and the room began to drop in temperature to match. The sensor in Valerie's watch would have begun to beep like crazy if she hadn't already keyed out Phantom's signature.

"As you wish," he said and blinked out of the visible spectrum.

Valerie tensed, but refused to panic or even look around. She simply ignored the crawling sensation at the back of her neck and holstered her gun then put away her dad's book that Dan left out. She didn't quite relax until the cold in the room had dissipated.


End file.
